Fugitive Kaohsiung politician planning to return to Taiwan

Former Kaohsiung City councilor Yang Min-lang (楊敏郎), who fled to China to avoid jail after being convicted of receiving bribes last year, will return home in July to face justice, his wife claimed yesterday.

Yang's wife, Lina Chen (陳麗娜), who has registered to run in the upcoming Kaohsiung City Council by-election as a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate, claimed that Yang "definitely" will return home as soon as he finishes his doctoral studies in business management at Xiamen University in Fujian Province.

Yang was convicted of receiving bribes from Kaohsiung City councillor Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄), a former Control Yuan member, before the council-speaker election.

He was sentenced to 20-month jail term.

Chu won the speakership with the support of 25 of the 44 councilors on Dec. 25, 2002, only to be questioned and taken into custody two days later in connection with vote-buying.

Chu's election -- widely regarded as representative of the image of "black gold" politics that the authorities are trying to eradicate -- caused at least 11 city councilors to be stripped of their councilor's rights after they admitted taking bribes from Chu for the election.

Yang fled to Xiamen, where he had begun to attend university a few years ago.

Chen said that her husband's case is still at the extraordinary appeal level and that he will fully respect the judicial process and any relevant decisions.

Altogether there will be 18 council seats up for grabs in the by-election scheduled for July 17.