If convicted former legislative speaker Liu Sung-fan (
Hwang Yih-jiau (
Ex-KMT member
Liu, 74, served as speaker of the Legislative Yuan from 1992 to 1999 while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was in power, but he joined the PFP in January 2000 and became one of its legislators-at-large after he was expelled from the KMT for supporting PFP Chairman James Soong (
Liu was sentenced to four years in jail and given a NT$30 million (US$903,000) fine in September last year by the Taiwan High Court's Taichung Branch for corruption.
The court found that, as chairman of the board at the Taichung Business Bank, Liu received NT$150 million in kickbacks from Tseng Cheng-jen (
Away when sentenced
At the time of the sentence, Liu was attending the Republican Party convention in New York. He has remained in the US ever since.
The warrant issued for his arrest will remain valid for 15 years.
Also commenting on the report about Liu's intention to return, William Lai (
Jail first
He said that Liu should come back to Taiwan to serve his sentence, and that if he is found to have a health problem while he is in jail, the legal system may grant him bail for medical treatment based on humanitarian considerations.
Answering questions in the legislature, Minister of Justice Morley Shih (
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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