Former Taiwan High Court judges Lee Chun-ti (李春地), Chen Jung-ho (陳榮和) and Tsai Kuang-chih (蔡光治) were sentenced to 11-and-a-half, 18 and 20 years in prison respectively by the Taipei District Court yesterday in one of the worst scandals to hit the nation’s judiciary.
The three former judges, as well as former Banciao District prosecutor Chiu Mao-jung (邱茂榮), were found guilty of corruption charges during the judicial processes for a land expropriation scheme in Miaoli County involving former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Ho Chih-hui (何智輝) and for another corruption case involving judge Chang Ping-lung (張炳龍) of the Taiwan High Court’s Hualien branch.
The four defendants cooperated to hand down not-guilty verdicts on Ho and Chang after receiving money from the two.
The cases were uncovered by the Special Investigation Panel (SIP), which pressed charges against the three.
The SIP found that Ho was sentenced to 19 years in prison in the first instance for a land expropriation scandal and 15 years in prison in his second court appearance. However, Ho delivered NT$2 million (US$70,000) and NT$1.5 million to Chen and Lee respectively, which led to the eventual not-guilty verdict.
Tsai was found guilty of receiving money from Chang to clear him of a corruption charge. In addition to his 20-year sentence, Tsai was also fined NT$3.5 million. Chen and Lee were also heavily fined.
Chang was charged with corruption after he was found to have accepted a NT$300,000 bribe from a person surnamed Kuo (郭) in 1996.
The scandal, which broke last year, brought down the chief of the judiciary and prompted President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to set up a new anti-corruption watchdog.
The legislature passed the Anti-corruption Administration Act (廉政署組織法) on April 1, clearing the way for a new crime-fighting agency to be set up under the Ministry of Justice.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP
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