The Kaohsiung District Court said late on Thursday night that the first pre-trial hearing concerning two-year-old charges of forgery and breach of trust against Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄) will be held on Jan. 10.
But the announcement will make little difference to Chu, who, having been re-elected to the city council on Dec. 7, will continue to enjoy the immunity from prosecution enjoyed by all elected officials from city and county councilors upward.
Chu, the 58-year-old independent Kaohsiung city councilor was elected to his fifth term in the municipal elections. He was then elected to the speakership of the council on Wednesday with 25 of the 44 city councilors' votes.
Chu and his wife Wu Te-mei (吳德美) were indicted on charges of forgery and breach of trust in 2000.
The couple allegedly withdrew NT$22.7 billion from the An Feng Group (安峰集團), of which Chu was president, pocketing the money for private purposes. In addition to indicting the couple, Kaohsiung prosecutors demanded a seven-year prison sentence for each of them.
Following Chu's election to the city's speakership on Wednesday, Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) complained that judges are delaying cases with the result that indicted suspects are not appropriately and promptly punished.
He accused the district court of inaction over Chu's two-year-old indictment and said that his hands were tied.
"In Chu's case, even though we have evidence against him, we can't do anything as he can't be prosecuted for at least the next four years," Chen said.
But Kaohsiung District Court spokesman Lin Shui-cheng (林水城) countered with a press conference on Thursday night, displaying an array of interrogation records, evidence and witness statements submitted by prosecutors, to explain the court's delay.
"Look at all this and you will realize why it takes such a long time," Lin said. "We have actually been doing a lot and have not been idle. Since Chu's case involves a huge amount of money and is very complicated, we want to be careful and accurate with the details provided by prosecutors so that we can produce a truly just verdict. That takes time."
But Lin also announced the Jan. 10 pre-trial hearing at the Thursday night press conference.
Lin's remarks were endorsed by Judicial Yuan President Weng Yueh-sheng (翁岳生) yesterday at the body's year-end press conference.
"It is our hope that some day people will have so much trust in the verdicts of district courts that they won't wish to appeal. To achieve that goal, district court judges have to be more careful and accurate about every decision they make. That is also one of the goals of judicial reform," Weng said.
Chu was indicted on Dec. 16 on a separate and unrelated charge of bribery, with prosecutors alleging that he paid NT$500 to each voter during the recent city council election. Prosecutors are seeking a jail term for Chu of two years and four months. Lin did not comment on when the first pre-trial hearing on these charges will be held.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
RSS