Three Taiwan High Court judges and a district prosecutor were detained yesterday in connection with bribes that were allegedly paid during a corruption case involving former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Miaoli County commissioner Ho Chi-hui (何智輝).
The case stems from a five-year investigation that began in 2005. Observers say it was the largest investigation into judicial corruption ever conducted by the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.
About 100 agents from the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau raided more than 34 locations early on Tuesday, including the judges’ offices at the Taiwan High Court and their residences.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
The Taipei District Court said yesterday afternoon that all four, along with another two people alleged to be connected to the case, had been taken into custody.
The District Court said High Court judges Lee Chun-ti (李春地), Chen Jung-ho (陳榮和), Tsai Kuang-chih (蔡光治), Banciao Prosecutor Chiu Mao-jung (邱茂榮) and an alleged accomplice, Huang Lai Jui-jen (黃賴瑞珍), had been charged under the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). If found guilty, they could face a minimum of 10 years in prison and have to repay up to NT$100 million (US$3.1 million) each.
The other alleged accomplice, Hsieh Yen-jen (謝燕貞), could face a prison sentence of between one and seven years and a fine of up to NT$3 million if found guilty. She is also under suspicion for allegedly destroying evidence, the SIM card from a mobile phone, during Tuesday’s police raids.
The six are suspected of taking or facilitating bribes offered by Ho in return for overturning a lower court’s guilty verdict in a corruption case stemming from his time as a legislator.
Ho, 60, is believed to be on the run. An order barring him from leaving the country was issued yesterday, and prosecutors said they would issue an arrest warrant if he did not turn himself in.
Ho has served as a Miaoli County councilor, Miaoli County commissioner and a legislator.
He was indicted in 2004. In 2006, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison after being convicted of receiving large kickbacks during the development phase of the Tongluo expansion of the Hsinchu Science Park in Miaoli County. Ho appealed the case to the Supreme Court and in May the Taiwan High Court found him not guilty.
Documents released by the Taipei District Court yesterday alleged Ho had paid off some of the judges, possibly through intermediaries during clandestine meetings in cars and underground parking lots. Evidence complied by the court show the payments were believed to have reached NT$3.5 million at one point.
Lee and Chen were the reporting judge and the presiding judge of the High Court trial that acquitted Ho of taking bribes.
Judicial Yuan President Lai In-jaw (賴英照) was infuriated over the “breakdown of order” in the judiciary and pledged to immediately form a special task force to come up with concrete steps in to correct judicial discipline, the Judicial Yuan said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Presidential Office yesterday said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) fully supported efforts to get to the bottom of the case and urged civil servants and judicial personnel to steer clear of corruption.
“The public’s trust in the government is the most important asset of a government,” Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) quoted Ma as saying. “Corruption erodes such trust.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.