The Taiwan High Court on Wednesday turned down a request by prosecutors to seize the assets of the family of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who is in prison after being convicted of bribery.
Prosecutors had asked the court for permission to seize land, houses, term deposits and stocks owned by Chen, his wife and members of their immediate family.
The prosecutors said that the seizure of the family’s assets was part of the legal obligations linked to the conviction of the couple.
ENOUGH
However, a High Court collegial panel ruled that the sum of more than NT$600 million (US$20 million) in overseas bank deposits that had already been confiscated by prosecutors was sufficient to pay back Chen’s illegal gains and therefore there was no need to seize his other assets in Taiwan.
Also, the panel said, some of the Chen family assets that the prosecutors were seeking to confiscate had already been listed in an earlier request in connection with a financial reform kickback case, which is still being handled by the court.
SENTENCE
On Nov. 11, the Supreme Court sentenced the former president to 11 years in prison for taking bribes in a land deal during his time in office and also handed him an eight-year sentence in another bribery case.
The rulings were the first final convictions in a string of corruption cases against Chen and his wife.
The Taiwan High Court is authorized to determine whether the combined 19-year sentence should be served concurrently or consecutively.
After careful review, a collegial panel at the high court ruled that Chen’s total prison time should be 17-and-a-half years, a court spokesman said.
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