Taipei judges jailed former Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City councilor Hsu Fu-nan (許富男) for six years on Thursday for visiting Russia using NT$1.5 million (US$50,000) in public funds in July 2005.
“The court decided on a six-year sentence for Hsu, because in addition to continuing to deny the accusation, he never apologized or expressed regret for what he did,” the verdict said.
In addition to the sentence, the judges also deprived Hsu of his civil rights for three years.
Meanwhile, Taipei City Bureau of Health Department of Planning Director Yen Yu-bin (嚴玉賓) was sentenced to two years in prison, with a one-year loss of her civil rights, but the sentence was suspended for five years as judges believed that Yen was only following a directive given by Hsu.
Both Hsu and Yen are able to appeal their sentences within 10 days of receiving their verdicts.
The verdict said that Yen felt compelled to do as Hsu had asked because councilors could make life difficult for staff members who did not fulfill their wishes.
In her defense, Yen said she carried out Hsu’s request because she “wanted to maintain a harmonious atmosphere” at the council.
In addition to Hsu and Yen, another 17 people, including councilors, officials and civilians joined the trip in 2005.
In related news, the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Taitung branch passed details of its case against Taitung County Commissioner Kuang Li-chen’s (鄺麗貞) frequent foreign visits to the party’s Evaluation and Discipline Committee for further investigation.
The party decided to look into Kuang’s case after she was found to have spent more than NT$12 million (US$390,000) on foreign inspection tours since taking office two years ago.
Kuang took 10 township heads to Europe last month, despite forecasts that Typhoon Fung-wong would sweep through Taiwan from the east coast. It was her eighth foreign trip in the past two years.
After the commissioner’s behavior attracted widespread criticism from local residents and politicians across party lines, KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) asked the party’s Taitung branch to gather information and send it to the committee for further investigation.
Zuo Yi-rong (左義榮), director of the Taitung branch, said the branch had received negative comments from local residents and he urged both Kuang and the county government to enhance their crisis management capabilities.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MO YAN-CHIH
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan