After prosecutors offer amnesty, canaries twitter

Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office yesterday said that one Kaohsiung City councilor had turned himself and confessed to taking a NT$5 million bribe from newly-elected speaker of the city council, Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄), and another councilor has contacted prosecutors to express his willingness to talk.

"He reported to us at around 2pm. In addition to admitting that he received bribe money from Chu, he also provided a lot of useful information. In the meantime, the councilor told prosecutors that he will hand the bribe over to us as evidence before next Tuesday," Chou Chang-chin (周章欽), spokesman for the prosecutors' office, told reporters at a press conference.

"In addition, another councilor also contacted us this morning and said that he was willing to talk. But we have not met yet," he said.

The moves follow a prosecutors' offer Thursday to suspend the prosecution of any councilor who turns himself in before being summoned in connection with the investigation into the vote-buying scandal surrounding the council's speakership election.

Chou declined to name the two councilors. He said that the councilor who turned himself in was released without charges after the interview. Prosecutors will suspend the bribery charge against him after he hands over the money next week.

In the meantime, he again urged any councilors who received bribes to give themselves up "while they still have a chance."

"As long as they report to us and return the bribes they received before we officially summon them, which will be in the next few days, we will suspend the charges against them so they can remain in their posts instead of going to jail," he said.

In addition, Chou said that prosecutors are "considering filing a request to the court for Hsien Ji-yu's (賢繼宇) release either by dropping the charges or setting bail. Hsien, Chu's secretary-general, who has been detained since Tuesday has provided important and useful clues to prosecutors during the past 48 hours, Chou said.

"On Thursday, he told us how Chu used his company money before, during and after the election. Today, he named more than 20 councilors who were involved in the bribery and told us that each of them has received at least NT$5 million," Chou said.

Yesterday afternoon, Kaohsiung prosecutors also summoned Huang Hsin-chung (黃信中), the general-manager for Happy Radio FM97.5 which is a Kaohsiung affiliate of Taipei radio station, ET FM, on suspicion of distributing Chu's bribes.

Chou had previously told reporters, "The relationship between Chu and Hsien was that of a boss to his employee."

According to Chou, Huang has admitted distributing the bribes with Hsien for Chu. He also told prosecutors that Chu paid NT$5 million per councilor for their votes.

As of press time yesterday, both Huang and Hsien were still being interviewed by prosecutors.