Taichung County Council Speaker Yen Ching-piao's (
Late Monday night the court ruled that Yen and the council's vice speaker, Chang Ching-tang (
Yen was indicted on charges of corruption and attempted murder while Chang and Tsai were indicted for corruption.
PHOTO: YANG CHENG-CHUN, TAIPEI TIMES
Yen's family staged the sit-in in front of the district court and prosecutors' office to protest against what they called an unjust judiciary.
A crowd of supporters put up tents, held banners, tied yellow ribbons on nearby trees and proclaimed they would continue campaigning until Yen returns home.
KMT Legislator Tseng Chen-nung (
"It wouldn't have turned out to be so had he [Yen] not intended to run for County Commissioner," Tseng cried, "I told him that now it's them [the DPP] in power. We cannot afford to play the game with them."
Yen's family and Tseng went to the detention center to visit Yen, but once Tseng was in front of the center he declined to enter, saying he would become too sad if he saw Yen. He finally left in tears without visiting the detained speaker.
Yen's wife Hou Li-chuan (侯麗娟), meanwhile, said the family would appeal the ruling.
The controversy over Monday's dramatic developments continued yesterday.
The president of the Taichung District Court said the judge who ruled on Monday morning that Yen and Chang could receive bail could be disciplined if the ruling was proved to be procedurally flawed.
A senior district court judge, Lu Yen-jung (陸炎榮), ruled in favor of the petitions by Yen and Chang's family that the speaker and vice speaker be released on bail.
Yen's bail had been set at NT$2 million and his family had paid the money around 11:45am. However, prosecutors indicted Yen, Chang and Tsai and took them to court before Yen and Chang could be released on bail.
Presiding over a hearing that evening, judge Chuang Shen-yuan (
Prosecutors have claimed that Lu's ruling allowing bail was flawed because he alone reversed a ruling handed down by a three-judge panel -- a move the prosecutors claim violated the law.
But the court president said that the requirement of a panel in such a case is not mandatory, although a majority of judges in a meeting yesterday morning agreed that the bail ruling should not have been made by just one judge.
The president also said the court simultaneously notified the defense and the prosecutors by phone about the bail ruling before noon Monday.
The prosecutors, however, have claimed that they did not know about the ruling when they proceeded with the indictment, denying they had deliberately prevented Yen from being released.
Lee Ching-yi (
"I have no idea about what they said about telephone notification anyway," he said yesterday.
The corruption charges the three men face stem from allegations they used the council's "public relations budgets" to cover money they spent at hostess bars.
The attempted murder charge against Yen is linked, according to local media, to a 1996 shooting incident, when people from Yen's office fired shots at a vehicle driving around their office in Shalu township.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
BACK TO WORK? Prosecutors said they are considering filing an appeal, while the Hsinchu City Government said it has applied for Ann Kao’s reinstatement as mayor The High Court yesterday found suspended Hsinchu mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) not guilty of embezzling assistant fees, reducing her sentence to six months in prison commutable to a fine from seven years and four months. The verdict acquitted Kao of the corruption charge, but found her guilty of causing a public official to commit document forgery. The High Prosecutors’ Office said it is reviewing the ruling and considering whether to file an appeal. The Taipei District Court in July last year sentenced Kao to seven years and four months in prison, along with a four-year deprivation of civil rights, for contravening the Anti-Corruption
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
RSS