The Taiwan High Court’s Tainan branch yesterday sentenced former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Tainan County council speaker Wu Chien-bao (吳健保) in a final verdict to two years in prison by for fixing professional baseball games.
The ruling followed a similar sentence by the Tainan District Court.
Tainan prosecutors said Wu would soon be informed when he is expected to start serving his sentence.
Tainan prosecutors had indicted Wu and five Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) players on charges of fixing baseball games.
Five former Chinatrust Whales players — Tseng Han-chou (曾漢州), Cheng Chang-ming (鄭昌明), Chi Chun-lin (紀俊麟), Chen Chien-wei (陳健偉) and Huang Kwei-yu (黃貴裕) — were all found not guilty in yesterday’s ruling.
The ruling said there was insufficient evidence that the five players had engaged in match-fixing with Wu.
The ruling said that beginning in 2005, Wu ran an illegal gambling business that people would use to bet on professional baseball games.
The ruling added that Wu and three La New Bears players fixed a game when the team played the Chinatrust Whales in Kaohsiung on April 28, 2007, illegally profiting NT$8,650,000 (US$286,000) from the outcome of the game.
The three La New Bears players have been indicted in a separate case.
The KMT revoked Wu’s party membership in February last year following his indictment.
Wu is an independent Greater Tainan councilor.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
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