Kaohsiung prosecutors yesterday said they will investigate allegations of bribery leveled at presidential advisor and former city council speaker Chen Tien-mao (陳田錨).
The prosecutors were acting on an accusation made on Thursday by Wu Te-mei (
Wu accused Chen of attempting to buy votes during an election for speaker eight years ago.
"We have begun the investigation process. We will not complete it until we establish innocence or guilt," said Chou Chang-chin (周章欽), spokesman for the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office.
Political factors had interfered with justice in her and her hus-band's case, Wu said during an interview with reporters on Thursday.
She said that bribery was very common during local elections, and that Chen had attempted to buy votes from Chu while campaigning for the speaker's post eight years ago.
"I did once receive bribe money from Chen on behalf of my husband, but I returned it straight away," Wu said.
"It was the year my husband ... won his first city council campaign and became a Kaohsiung City councilor," she said.
Wu did not describe the incident in great detail, and did not say how much money she allegedly received from Chen.
"It's our job to determine if Wu's allegation is true, now that she has publicly identified Chen. If it's not true, Chen will have the right to file suit for slander," Chou said.
Chen, a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) heavyweight, has denied Wu's accusation, saying he never bought votes during his career as a councilor.
"It's ridiculous. The truth will prove her wrong," he said.
Chen is now a senior advisor to the president. He first became a councilor in Kaohsiung City in 1958 and served as speaker for the first time in 1968. Prior to leaving the council in 1998, Chen had been speaker for 17 years.
The Kaohsiung District Court sentenced Chu and Wu to jail for buying votes during last December's election for council speaker.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
RSS