Kaohsiung prosecutors yesterday said former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Wu Der-mei (吳德美) failed to report to prosecutors on Friday to start her eight-and-a-half-year prison term.
Chung Chung-hsiao (鍾忠孝), spokesman for the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office, told reporters that Wu should have appeared at the district prosecutors’ office at 3pm on Friday, but that her son, accompanied by lawyers, had paid the office a visit on Friday morning to apply for a delay to Wu’s prison time, claiming that Wu suffered a bone fracture and was in no condition to be jailed.
Wu was confined to a wheelchair, Chung quoted Wu’s son as saying.
Chung said that while prosecutors were considering the application, they remained alert to the possibility that she might attempt to escape.
Wu received her final sentence earlier this year for embezzling about NT$2 billion (US$58.8 million) from her company, An Feng Group.
Wu’s husband, former An Feng Group president and Kaohsiung City councilor Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄), is on the wanted list.
Chu was convicted on charges of vote-buying in September 2003 and sentenced to 22 months in jail. He was also a suspect in several other scandals, including the embezzlement case involving his wife.
Chu fled to China before he was to begin his jail term in October 2003, despite efforts by law officials to monitor him.
Chu was a former KMT member and later withdrew from the party.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
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