The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday granted prosecutors' requests to release the the wife of newly elected Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung's (朱安雄) on NT$300,000 bail.
"Wu Te-mei (吳德美) has cooperated with us and we believe that there no longer exists any reason for us to detain her," said Chou Chang-chin (周章欽), spokesman for the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office.
Wu and her husband were detained by prosecutors on Dec. 28 in connection with alleged vote-rigging during the Kaohsiung speakership election last Christmas. Chu remains at the Kaohsiung Detention House.
Kaohsiung prosecutors have summoned 27 of Kaohsiung City's 44 councilors to answer questions regarding the bribery investigation. Of the 27, 10 have admitted to receiving NT$5 million in payoffs from Chu and have agreed to return the money to the prosecutors' office as evidence. Chou said that one councillor has so far failed to return the full amount of his bribe money, leaving prosecutors with a shortfall of NT$1.5 million.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office has suspended its daily press conferences, a regular feature since the scandal broke on Dec. 26, after a report from DPP Legislator Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) at the DPP's Administrative Reform Seminar, at the International Convention Center, last Saturday claimed that prosecutors have leaked too much classified information to reporters during the investigation. Chen also said that Chou "talked too much."
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