New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday criticized the judiciary for releasing convicted judge Hu Ching-pin (胡景彬) on early parole and demanded that the Ministry of Justice give the public an explanation on the matter.
After hearing about Hu’s release, after serving a prison term for accepting bribes to influence court decisions, Huang wrote on Facebook: “How can this corrupt judge deserve to receive an early parole?”
“I just found out Hu has been released on parole. This is a judge who destroyed public trust in the justice system,” Huang wrote. “He only served 438 days before receiving the judiciary’s generosity with an early parole.”
The situation is unfair to “other honest, hardworking judges who worked day and night on trials,” who Huang called the victims of Hu’s decision to take bribes.
Hu’s case first came to light when prosecutors in 2009 received a complaint that he solicited bribes while presiding over a trial.
The Taichung District Court in October 2014 convicted then-63-year-old Hu of abusing his position as a judge at the High Court’s Taichung branch to solicit bribes in exchange for issuing favorable verdicts on litigation.
Investigators discovered that Hu had at least NT$300 million (US$10.14 million at the current exchange rate) in properties and assets from questionable origins that he registered under the names of his wife and two mistresses.
The court found Hu guilty of “accepting bribes to influence the actions of officials in the discharge of their public duties and powers,” and “the crime of a government employee holding many unaccounted-for property assets.”
He began serving a four-and-a-half-year term in October 2014.
The case sparked public outrage. Hu was labeled among the system’s worst and most corrupt judges, with media reports giving accounts of Hu taking jewelry and hundreds of millions in bribe money while enjoying a lifestyle of frequenting hostess bars for sexual services.
The Ministry of Justice’s Agency of Corrections on Saturday reviewed Hu’s application for early parole and after paying a fine of NT$4.5 million, Hu was yesterday released from Taoyuan’s Bade Minimum-Security Prison, where he had been serving his sentence.
Hu is facing a 16-year jail term in another case, which is under retrial at the Supreme Court.
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