Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker Chiang Lien-fu (江連福) has failed to report to authorities to start serving a four-and-half-year prison term for vote-buying, prosecutors said.
Chiang was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison by the Supreme Court on Feb. 22 for vote-buying during the 2007 legislative elections in then-Taichung city. Chiang was expelled from the legislature after the Taiwan High Court’s Taichung branch nullified his legislator status on October 2009.
According to Taichung prosecutors, Chiang last month notified the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office that he had transferred his household to Changhua County. The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office consequently authorized the Changhua District Prosecutors’ Office to imprison Chiang.
Taichung prosecutors said Changhua prosecutors told -Chiang to report for prison on April 18 and begin serving his sentence, but he failed to meet with Changhua prosecutors on that day and has since been missing, prompting Taichung prosecutors to issue warrants against him. The warrant was valid till April 26 and still there was no sign of Chiang.
Taichung prosecutors said that there was no indication Chiang has fled the country, adding that prosecutors might place him on the wanted list soon.
According to prosecutors, -Chiang’s family and his former aides said they had no idea of his whereabouts.
This is the second case within a week in which a high-profile convict failed to report to prison and might have fled the country.
Former legislator Lo Fu-chu (羅福助) was placed on the most-wanted list last week after failing to report to prosecutors to begin serving a four-year prison term for forgery, stock manipulation and money laundering.
The Ministry of Justice said it planned to amend the law to allow prosecutors to issue warrants for major criminals as soon as the courts hand down final verdicts in their cases.
It also wants prosecutors to be able to monitor convicts through electronic tags and other means as they await their prison terms.
It added that it had invited Bureau of Investigation, police, coast guard and immigration authorities to discuss the issue in a meeting tomorrow.
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