The Taiwan High Court yesterday ordered a lower court to revise its decision to release two suspects in an investigation into allegations of overpricing for a highway improvement project by the Taipei City Government.
Taipei prosecutors on Sept. 8 requested that former New Construction Department director Huang Hsi-hsun (黃錫薰) and Join Engineering Consultants employee Lee Mei (李媺) be detained, but the Taipei District Court ruled that Huang could be released on NT$500,000 (US$15,900) bail and Lee on NT$300,000 bail.
The court barred the two from leaving the country.
After prosecutors appealed the decision, the Taiwan High Court yesterday asked the district court to re-examine whether to detain Huang and Lee.
The court said statements by Huang, Lee and Chen Chih-sheng (陳智盛), the former section chief of the New Construction Department, who has been detained since Sept. 8, were contradictory and created suspicions.
As a number of suspects and witnesses have yet to be questioned, Lee and Huang could conspire with them if they are allowed to walk free, the Taiwan High Court said.
The district court is expected to hold a hearing into the case within days.
The NT$1.3 billion Xinsheng Overpass scandal is part of prosecutors’ investigation into exorbitant prices paid by the Taipei City Government for flowers to be planted under the highway.
In some cases, the prices paid for flowers were about 30 times the normal market price.
The New Construction Department was also accused of paying 12 times the normal market price for water pipes used in the overpass project.
The investigation follows a complaint lodged by a group of Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City councilors alleging possible negligence of duty and possible acts of bribery by Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) relating to the project.
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