Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) will not be required to return income she earned during her terms as Taipei City councilor, the Taipei High Administrative Court said in a ruling yesterday.
The Taipei District Court last year found Lee guilty of fraud and forgery after it was revealed that she had failed to renounce her US citizenship before serving in elected office. She was sentenced to two years in prison.
Public officials are not allowed to hold dual citizenship.
Photo: Yang Kuo-wen, Taipei Times
The Taipei City Council, which filed the lawsuit against Lee and requested she return the NT$22.7 million (US$770,000) she earned as a city councilor between 1994 and 1998, can appeal the ruling to the Supreme Administrative Court.
The ruling said that because Lee carried out her job during her time as councilor, the income she received was legal and would not have to be returned.
Lee has claimed that she mistakenly believed her US citizenship would be automatically invalidated upon her taking up public office.
Taipei prosecutors indicted Lee after receiving confirmation from the US Department of State that her US citizenship remained valid.
Prosecutors said that on personnel forms she filled out as a Taipei City councilor in 1994 and during her three terms as a legislator beginning in 1998, Lee deliberately left blank the field asking whether she held citizenship from any country other than the Republic of China.
The legislature had said it would not take legal action over her salary as a legislator before a final judgment. Once it is final, the legislature may pursue the matter.
Lee resigned from the KMT in December 2008 and gave up her legislative seat in 2009.
Lee’s criminal trial is pending in the High Court.
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