Two suspects in a Taipei City Government bribery scandal were ordered back into detention yesterday, overturning a lower court decision to free them on bail.
The Taipei District Court ruled on Sept. 8 that former Taipei City New Construction Department director Huang Hsi-hsun (黃錫薰) and Lee Mei (李媺), an employee at Join Engineering Consultants (昭凌工程顧問公司), could be released on NT$500,000 and NT$300,000 bail respectively in a case involving allegations that the city was overcharged for the Xinsheng Overpass rejuvenation project.
Yesterday’s hearing at the Taiwan High Court began in the morning and ended about 8pm.
Prosecutors said notebooks seized in Huang’s office proved that he had written instructions directing other suspects and witnesses in the case about how to answer prosecutors’ questions.
Prosecutors said they also found a report issued by the city’s Department of Government Ethics, which contained interviews of officials involved in the project, leading them to question how a classified document ended up in the hands of Huang, because he was a suspect.
Prosecutors said statements by Huang, Lee and Chen Chih-sheng (陳智盛), a former section chief of the construction department, who has been detained since Sept. 8, were contradictory.
Prosecutors said Chen had obtained notes, on the city’s Secretariat Office letterhead, saying the incident should be defined as “administrative negligence.”
The High Court called Huang and Lee’s role in the scandal “really suspicious,” adding that they could conspire with others if they were allowed to stay out on bail.
The NT$1.3 billion (US$41.4 million) Xinsheng Overpass scandal was part of an investigation into exorbitant prices paid by the city for flowers to be planted under the highway. The construction department was also accused of paying 12 times the normal price for water pipes used in the project.
The city government yesterday denied leaking information to former officials linked to the scandal.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) declined to comment on the case, but said everybody involved would cooperate with prosecutors.
“The whole case is under investigation. We believe the prosecutors will find the truth and will not do anyone injustice,” he said at Taipei City Hall.
Yang Shih-chin (楊石金), commissioner of the ethics department, said that while the city did not provide any official documents or information to former officials under investigation, it could not rule out the possibility that officials gave the documents to related personnel “in private.”
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