Former Tainan mayor Shih Chih-ming (
"Prosecutors received information that Shih might attempt to leave the country, so we urgently arrested him and sent him to prison," said Shih Yun-hong (施韻宏), the Tainan Prosecutors' Office official in charge of Shih's arrest. "Shih was previously indicted for accepting bribes from another construction company, but he stayed overseas for a long time to avoid likely imprisonment. So Shih's record showed he might escape after a final verdict was given."
On Thursday, the Supreme Court sentenced Shih Chih-ming to eight years and six months in jail for receiving NT$20 million (US$623,198) in bribes from a construction company in 1993, when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member was serving as Tainan mayor.
Shih Yun-hong said that prosecutors asked the Supreme Court to immediately forward the papers on Shih Chih-ming's verdict to the prosecutors' office on Thursday, and then directed police and agents of the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau to track him.
The prosecutor said that Shih Chih-ming had been sick and was staying at the Tainan hospital. On Friday afternoon, over doctors' objections because he still needed medical treatment, Shih Chih-ming asked the hospital to release him. He left the hospital at 3:30pm.
When prosecutors were informed that Shih Chih-ming had left the hospital, they immediately sent police and agents of the investigation bureau to look for him, suspecting he was at his girlfriend's residence.
The prosecutor said that late Friday, police monitoring the residence saw signs that Shih Chih-ming was likely staying there, and decided to raid the residence and arrest him early yesterday morning.
According to the prosecutor, Shih Chih-ming was shocked by the raid, and was in the middle of packing. He knelt down in front of the prosecutors, begged them to give him several days before sending him to the prison, and promised he would not try to escape.
Shih Chih-ming is temporarily being detained in a prison in Tainan, but will do his time at at Kaohsiung prison.
The prosecutor said that they had decided to swoop down on him after incidents in which politicians have fled the country after being found guilty of crimes.
Wu Tse-yuan (
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
RSS