Judiciary authorities yesterday searched several locations nationwide as part of a widening probe into alleged corruption involving prison wardens, and continued questioning five people listed as suspects in the case.
Officials said former Eastern Multimedia Group chairman Gary Wang (王令麟), incarcerated in Taipei Prison, will be questioned as a suspect this week in the alleged bribing of prison officials in exchange for special privileges.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that the first phase of the probe found that in addition to Wang, five inmates, are suspected of giving bribes to senior corrections officials.
The latest raids targeted friends and families of inmates and officials who are alleged to have acted as contacts or couriers in organizing meetings and delivering bribes and other gifts to prison officials, the office said.
The five suspects questioned by investigators seeking to determine how inmates allegedly instructed families and friends to pass on money and gifts to prison officials’ families and associates included Green Island Prison warden Su Ching-chun (蘇清俊), a former Taipei Prison deputy warden; Taichung Prison deputy warden Chao Chung-chih (趙崇智) and Taipei Prison management section director Chou Ping-jung (周秉榮), all of whom were detained last week and are being held incommunicado on suspicion of violating the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
The fourth person questioned was Hu Hsiao-ching (胡曉菁), Wang’s personal secretary, who was also detained last week for alleging arranging for the delivering of money and gifts to Su.
The fifth was Yilan Prison warden Wu Tai-wei (吳載威), who was later released on bail of NT$100,000.
Hu allegedly acted on instructions from Wang, who allegedly illegally had a mobile phone and other communication devices inside prison. Wang began serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence in November last year.
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