Legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), an independent, still faces three-and-a-half years in jail for illegal possession of firearms after the Supreme Court turned down his appeal against his conviction yesterday. However, the court granted an appeal against his corruption conviction.
The Taichung Branch of the Taiwan High Court’s sentenced Yen to 11 years in jail on Feb. 12, including seven-and-a-half years for corruption. The Supreme Court has asked the high court to rehear the case.
The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office said it would make sure Yen reported to jail on time.
“We will summon him when we receive the verdict from the Supreme Court and arrest him if he does not report to begin his jail time,” said Hung Pei-ken (洪培根), spokesman for the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office. “But, as a lawmaker, he enjoys immunity during the legislative session so we cannot arrest him there.”
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said Yen would retain his seat because the judges did not deprive him of his civil rights.
“He will serve his jail time as a lawmaker,” Wang said. “When he goes to jail, he will not receive his legislative salary. But his assistants will continue to be paid.”
Yen said last night that he would respect the court’s decision.
Yen was convicted of using public funds when he was a Taichung County councilor to pay personal expenses, including hostess bar and KTV lounge bills. Prosecutors said Yen spent more than NT$20 million (US$667,000) between 1998 and 2000.
The weapons charges stems from an incident in which Yen’s bodyguards fired at a car he thought was following him. The car was hit by more than 40 bullets.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods