Keelung Mayor Hsu Tsai-li (
Hsu died of complications from chronic heart disease, doctors said. He was 60.
Hsu was elected as the Keelung mayor in 2001 and won re-election in 2005 by representing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
He is best known nationally for his involvement in a corruption scandal relating to a land procurement deal for the Keelung City Government's bus department.
The deal was later called off, after the city council suspected wrongdoing and referred the case to prosecutors, whose investigation centered on Hsu.
The Keelung District Court sentenced Hsu to seven years in prison, after finding him guilty of corruption for trying to sell a piece of his own land to the city's bus department at a large profit.
Hsu was kicked out of the KMT after his conviction in September, although he maintained his position as mayor.
He had protested his innocence until his death and had said he would appeal the ruling, a move that kept him out of prison under the Taiwanese legal system.
Hsu also faced a recall vote, as the KMT and the city council had threatened to force him out of office over the scandal.
The Public Officials Election and Recall Law (
Central Election Commission (CEC) Spokesman Teng Tian-you (
Elections are customarily held on weekends, which means the Keelung by-election would most likely be held on May 12.
In addition to expressing their condolences, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), People First Party and Taiwan Solidarity Union yesterday all said that they would take part in the by-election.
Hsu had been undergoing dialysis treatment to treat diabetes complications. Three toes on his left foot had been amputated after becoming infected when he inspected a flooded area in Keelung in 2002.
Last year, KMT and DPP members launched a joint recall of Hsu after he was convicted of corruption. Since then, Hsu's health had deteriorated.
Hsu started his political career as a local borough chief. He had served as Keelung City councilor since 1982, and had been the speaker of the Keelung City Council for 12 consecutive years since 1990.
In 1997, Hsu withdrew from the KMT and campaigned for the Keelung mayorship, although he lost the election. He made a comeback in 2001, when he was elected mayor on a KMT nomination.
During his re-election bid in 2005, Hsu was accused of involvement in the land procurement scandal, but with full support of former KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the