The Control Yuan yesterday impeached retired lieutenant-general Yuan Hsiao-lung (袁肖龍), who was indicted in April in an uproar over alleged bribery for military promotion.
Control Yuan member Lee Ping-nan (李炳南) said the impeachment motion was endorsed unanimously by the Committee on National Defense and Intelligence Affairs.
Yuan and Lin Chih-chung (林治崇), who allegedly acted as a middleman to help a group of businesspeople secure military contracts by bribing officers with cash and prostitutes, had clearly attempted to obtain a promotion illegally, Lee said.
Prosecutors indicted Yuan and 11 businesspeople on charges of bribery and blackmail in a military scandal in which several high-ranking officers were accused of securing promotions by offering bribes. Yuan was accused of seeking promotion by bribing his superiors with the help of Lin.
“Although Yuan’s attempt to get promotion via bribery failed, his intent to commit the crime was clear,” Lee said.
Lee said that the Control Yuan suggested the Judicial Yuan amend the Act on Discipline of Civil Servants (公務人員懲戒法) to increase fines in such cases and make retired civil servants subject to the rules.
Former chief of general staff Huo Shou-yeh (霍守業) had also been suspected of accepting bribes from officers, but was cleared by the Control Yuan.
Lee also said the investigation found that neither Huang Fang-yen (黃芳彥), the physician of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) family, nor Chao Jung-tai (卓榮泰), former secretary-general of the Presidential Office under Chen, was involved in the scandal.
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