In a final ruling, the Supreme Court yesterday upheld a conviction against Kinmen’s Chinsha Township (金沙) Mayor Chen Chi-te (陳其德) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for receiving bribes to help a woman flee to China and evade prosecution for fraud.
In the first and second rulings, the court found Chen guilty. He was handed an 11-year prison sentence and was deprived of his civic rights for six years.
The case involved a woman surnamed Wu (吳), who paid Chen NT$280,000 (US$9,390) to arrange a boat for her to travel from Kinmen to China’s Fujian Province in September 2012.
At the time, Chen was a detective and had been working for Kinmen police since 1993. He was later forced to quit for being involved in a separate criminal case.
Wu worked as a hotel executive, but she was convicted of fraud and the court imposed travel restrictions on her. She went to Chen to help her evade prosecution, and because the hotel she worked at required her to travel to Xiamen in China’s Fujian Province on business.
In the second ruling on the case, the High Court said: “Chen held a high-ranking police post. However, he took a bribe from Wu for personal gain and made arrangements for Wu to flee the country... He was deceiving when questioned, gave false statements and did not admit to wrongdoing when under investigation.”
In another case related to cross-strait security, the High Court yesterday convicted four Coast Guard Administration (CGA) officials for taking bribes of about NT$1 million per month from Chinese ship captains to allow them to fish in Taiwanese waters.
In the ruling, Huang Wen-che (黃文哲), a captain of the coast guard’s 9th Coastal Patrol Corps, and his wife, Chen Wen-chun (陳文君), an administrative clerk in the 3rd Coastal Patrol Corps, were handed prison terms of five years and 10 months, and two years and 10 months respectively.
Lin Huang-tsai (林黃財), a unit leader for coast guard’s mobile patrol fleet in central Taiwan, was handed a prison term of two years and nine months, and Hsu Liang-chi (徐良吉), a member of the CGA 3rd Coastal Patrol Corps, was given five years and nine months.
The case can still be appealed. All four have been relieved of their positions.
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