State Prosecutor-General Lu Jen-fa (
Wu's appeal against a string of corruption and fraud convictions is pending.
Lu refused to discuss the meeting or authorities' plans about Wu with reporters.
"I will not tell you any details about the meeting since it is not proper for us to give any information about the action we propose until we have arrested the suspect. But arresting Wu and getting him back to Taiwan as soon as possible to finish his trial is our priority," said Lu before the meeting.
He said the meeting had been called in response to Minster of Justice Chen Ding-nan's (
Among those attending yesterday's meeting were Taipei District Prosecutors' Office Prosecutor-General Morley Shih (
Wu was convicted by the Panchiao District Court in 1996 for his involvement, as a KMT member and director of the Taiwan Provincial Government's Planning and Development Department, in the 1992 Sipiantou (四汴頭) scandal.
The scandal revolved around a project to build a water pumping station in Taipei County.
Wu was found to have manipulated the criteria for contractors, dishonestly awarded the contract to favored companies, inflated the project budget, received NT$6 million in kickbacks and, in breach of his obligations as a public official, illegally handed over 30 percent of the contract fee immediately after the contract was signed.
Wu was allowed to remain free pending appeal. He also continued to serve as Pingtung County commissioner, a post he had held since 1993.
In 1997, however, the Taiwan High Court ruled in favor of a prosecutors' request that Wu should be detained as there was a risk that he might abscond and that he be suspended from the Pingtung job.
In May 1998, Wu was released on bail of NT$3.6 million for medical reasons and was forbidden to travel abroad. Seven months later, however, he was elected to the Legislative Yuan as an independent legislator for Pingtung County, thereby acquiring the judicial immunity enjoyed by legislators during legislative sessions.
He won re-election on Dec. 1, 2001, and shortly afterwards he was named leader of a legislative delegation for a trip to Japan and he was granted temporary leave by the court to leave the country for that purpose.
Wu left Taiwan on Dec. 29, 2001, the date of the delegation's departure, but he did not go to Japan. His legislative office announced a month later that he had flown to Bangkok. The Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation later said that Wu had been spotted by its special agents in Guangzhou, China.
On Nov. 19 last year, the Taiwan High Court declared Wu a wanted man after he failed to answer a summons in connection with his appeal.
RSS