The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday questioned why former Non-Partisan Solidarity Union legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標) was still out helping his son campaign for the legislative by-election for the seat he had left vacant, while two other Greater Taichung politicians, who had been convicted in a corruption case along with Yen, have started serving their prison terms.
Yen was sentenced on Nov. 28 last year to three-and-a-half years in prison for misuse of public funds during his term as Taichung County Council speaker.
Greater Taichung Council Speaker Chang Ching-tang (張清堂), an independent, who was Yen’s vice speaker in the Taichung County Council at the time, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. Tsai Wen-hsiung (蔡文雄), Yen’s former secretary, received a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) told a press conference yesterday that Chang and Tsai started their prison terms on Dec. 22.
Chang applied to prosecutors twice to delay his sentence, but the requests were rejected.
Wang questioned why Yeh is still free and spending his time helping his son, Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恆), with campaigning.
The 36-year-old Yen Kuan-hen is running as the KMT’s candidate.
In response, Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) said that because Yen Ching-piao went to jail previously and was released on parole, now that he has received a new sentence, the Taiwan High Court has to decide the length of his prison term.
According to Chen, the Taiwan High Court’s Taichung branch has decided Yen Ching-piao should serve a three-year-and-three-months prison term, but Yen Ching-piao appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.
As the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected his appeal, prosecutors should soon receive a ruling in writing from the Taiwan High Court’s Taichung branch and it will then summon Yen Ching-piao to serve his prison term accordingly, Chen said.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
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Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
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