A Taitung prosecutor who was released on bail last week while under investigation for allegedly accepting bribes was detained again late on Monday.
The Taitung Prosecutors’ Office took Lin Sheng-lin (林聖霖) into custody on Sunday night for questioning on the strength of new evidence implicating him in a second bribery case. It also sought permission from the Taitung District Court to keep him in custody.
The court granted permission on Monday after reviewing arguments submitted by the prosecutors’ office that Lin tried to contact witnesses and defendants in the bribery cases through his father in an apparent attempt to collude with them.
Last Wednesday, Lin was released on bail of NT$500,000 after being taken into custody a day earlier to answer questions on whether he had accepted bribes from suspects who should have been indicted in criminal cases he handled.
At the time, the court ruled that there was no need to keep Lin in detention.
He could face at least five years in prison if convicted of the original charges.
On the same day, the court set bail at NT$200,000 for a broker surnamed Wu who prosecutors allege assisted Lin in obtaining bribes.
The court banned both Lin and Wu from leaving the country.
The Taitung Prosecutors’ Office said Lin had been reassigned from the Shilin Prosecutors’ Office in Taipei City to work in Taitung last August because he had neglected too many of his criminal cases.
Ethics officers at the Taitung Prosecutors’ Office placed Lin under surveillance after he continued to allow cases to accumulate and dismissed other cases he should have prosecuted.
Further investigation led to the admission by several suspects in at least two criminal cases that Lin had offered not to indict them in return for bribes.
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