Hsinchu County Magistrate Lin Kuang-hua (
The court sentenced the magistrate to six months imprisonment and deprived him of his civil rights for one year. The court, however, has ordered the sentence suspended for five years.
Lin, running on a DPP ticket, and Cheng Yung-chin (
During the election, Lin published defamatory statements against Cheng, accusing him of having acquired illicit interest from sales of real estate, the court found.
In his campaign flyers, Lin accused Cheng, former Hsinchu county council speaker, of having accumulated his fortune by engaging in speculative real estate sales in the county.
The court said Lin, without any proof, had maliciously published the defamatory statements in order to influence voters.
The court also found Lin had defamed Cheng in his campaign posters, which referred to the KMT candidate as a "speculator ... dishonest" and "shameless."
The court found Lin intended to use the statements to lower Cheng's reputation and sway voters' opinion.
Lin, who was convicted of defamation in October 1998 for the same defamatory statements against Cheng, said yesterday he was dissatisfied with the high court decision and will likely file an appeal soon.
The court said it decided to sentence Lin to six-months imprisonment, because the magistrate's acts violated the law and stained the image of the democratic system.
However, the court ordered the sentence to be suspended for five years, during which time Lin will not actually be imprisoned unless he commits another offense.
"It is contemptible the defendant used illicit campaign tactics. Nevertheless, he committed the offense with the intention of winning the election so that he could contribute to society and serve the public.
"Following the conviction, he should learn a lesson and not repeat his offense," the court said.
Lin was first found guilty of the charges in January last year and received a six month prison sentence.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
RSS