The Taiwan High Court sentenced independent legislator Wu Tzer-yuan (
The court found that Wu had accepted more than NT$6 million in bribes while he served as the director of the Taiwan Provincial Planning and Developing Department between 1988 and 1992.
The court said Wu, former legislator Lee Tsung-cheng (
The court said Wu took the money in exchange for helping Kuo-feng win the pumping station contract, which was designed to resolve flooding problems in Panchiao.
The court gave Wu 15 years, blasting him for caring nothing about the lives and properties of hundreds of thousands of Panchiao residents when making the kickback deal.
Wu, who was ordered detained during a trial by the Panchiao District Court in 1996, was granted bail for medical reasons by the High Court in May 1998.
Seven months after his release, the former KMT politician was elected to the legislature -- despite his membership being canceled by the party, which disapproved of his campaign.
During the trial, Wu answered almost every court summons, though he did not attend yesterday's verdict announcement.
Both Wu and prosecutors could appeal yesterday's decision.
Wu's status as a legislator will not be affected until his case is affirmed by the Supreme Court.
As an enormously powerful politician in the southern county of Pingtung, Wu earned widespread attention for his involvement in the case. Previous court rulings have swung wildly between his favor and that of the prosecutors.
In 1996, the Panchiao District Court found Wu guilty and sentenced him to life in prison for taking bribes of more than NT$26 million. Wu, who was serving as a Pingtung county commissioner at the time, was forced to resign from his post.
But in 1998, the High Court reversed the district court's ruling and reduced Wu's sentence to 15 years. The court also ruled that Wu had taken NT$6 million in bribes, not NT$26 million.
Then in October that same year, the Supreme Court returned the case to the High Court, saying the lower court had "deliberately applied laws favorable to Wu" in reducing his sentence.
In response to the Supreme Court's ruling, the High Court changed the charge against Wu to one that carries a possible prison term of life. But the length of the sentence remained 15 years.
Apart from his sentence, Wu's medical parole has also been attacked in light of his run for the legislature. Some critics have called for the lawmaker to be put back in detention.
The Judicial Reform Foundation, an organization that has been especially critical of Wu's parole, recently issued a statement to the High Court judges on the case. The foundation said that the lawmaker appears to be in good health and should therefore be incarcerated again.
But the High Court declined to detain Wu, saying the reasons to hold him were no longer valid. There was no reason to believe Wu would destroy evidence in the case or suborn perjury, the court said.
The court also noted that Wu had attended almost every hearing in the trial and so it did not judge him to be a flight risk.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS