Prosecutors yesterday summoned former Presidential Office director Lin Teh-hsun (林德訓) for questioning on suspicion of perjury — an accusation that Lin denied.
Taipei District Court judges asked prosecutors in September to look into whether Lin had committed perjury.
The court convicted Lin and former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成), both of whom were aides to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), of helping the former first couple embezzle money. They were sentenced to 16 years and 20 years respectively and stripped of their civil rights for eight years and 10 years respectively.
The former aide is suspected of asking the former first family’s bookkeeper, Chen Chen-hui (陳鎮慧), and a friend of former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) to lie to prosecutors about details related to the presidential “state affairs fund.”
Prosecutors said they found contradictions when they tried to corroborate statements from the witnesses. However, Lin denied the accusations during questioning yesterday.
Lin and Ma were among the codefendants in the former president’s trial who received the heaviest sentences because, the court said, they committed their crimes as civil servants and refuse to confess to their crimes.
Taipei District prosecutors said they may soon question the former president at Taipei Detention Center, where he is being detained, on suspicions that he participated in coordinating perjury among witnesses.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai