Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (
The district court sentenced Chiu to 50 days in jail. His sentence was reduced to 25 days in accordance with a sentence commutation statute passed last year. Chiu's sentence can also be commuted to a fine. Chiu yesterday said he would appeal the ruling to the Taiwan High Court.
"Chiu Yi failed to offer solid evidence that Yu illegally lobbied for a construction company that won a construction bid from the Taiwan Power Company," the Taipei District Court ruling said.
The ruling added that Chiu's remarks had jeopardized Yu's reputation and were not protected under the freedom of speech.
According to the ruling, in March 2006, Chiu told the TBVS political talk show, 2100 Quan Min Kai Jiang (Speaking Your Mind at 2100), that a construction company was able to win a NT$5 billion (US$153 million) bid from the Taiwan Power Company because Yu was behind the company.
Chiu said his accusation was based on solid evidence, but when the court asked him to provide the evidence, he told the court the accusation against Yu was based on his suspicions.
Chiu has been facing multiple slander suits for revealing scandals without offering proof.
Chiu was also indicted in March 2006 for alleging that DPP Legislator Hsu Jung-shu (許榮淑) was involved in Futung Group's embezzlement of several billions of dollars.
He alleged Hsu had traded 600 Futung Group stocks before it was forced to cease trading on the stock market.
Prosecutors found Chiu's accusation was untrue.
This case was not heard in district court because Chiu and Hsu settled out of court.
Meanwhile, in other news, DPP Legislators Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶) and Huang Chao-hui (黃昭輝) on Friday were found guilty in a slander lawsuit brought against them by the leader of the 2006 anti-President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) movement, Shih Ming-teh (施明德).
The two legislators were sued for calling Shih a "homeless mad dog," a "pervert" and a "bastard" during a press conference held in September 2006.
The Taipei district court handed down the verdict with a ruling that Chiang and Huang each had to pay NT$100,000 (US$3,000) to Shih in compensation.
Both legislators said they would appeal the case.
Chang Fu-chung (
Additional reporting by staff writer
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
RSS