The Taiwan High Court’s Kaohsiung branch yesterday upheld a guilt verdict against a Kaohsiung police officer, sentencing him to eight years in prison and depriving him of his civil rights for three years for taking bribes in contravention of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
The court also seized NT$5.73 million (US$187,365) that former Kaohsiung City Police Department Sanmin (三民) Second Precinct chief Lee Shih-chang took in bribes.
Lee had appealed the first ruling by a district court on the grounds that his punishment was too harsh and sought a reduced sentence, but the High Court rejected his appeal.
Photo: Huang Chien-hua, Taipei Times
The district court also sentenced police supervisor Lin Chen-hung (林振宏) to 16 years in prison and deprived him of his civil rights for six years, while Yeh Chia-hsiung (葉嘉雄), who transfered the bribe money, was given an 18-month prison term.
A probe was launched in October 2015 on allegations that Kaohsiung police officers were taking bribes to “provide protection” to underground gambling businesses.
Investigators found that Lee, then head of the Kaohsiung City Police Department’s Duty Dispatch Division, was the highest-ranking police officer involved in the case.
Lee and other police officers received bribes on a semi-regular basis in 2011 and 2012 from the proprietors of electronic game parlors, unlicensed casinos and other illegal betting operations in the city, investigators said.
Lee arranged police patrols and controls to avoid the businesses run by the colluding proprietors, and gave the illegal businesses advance warning of police raids, investigators said.
The proprietors pooled the bribe money and gave it to Yeh to be handed over to Lee, they said, adding that this was done 21 times for a total of NT$11.46 million, and Lee gave half of the money to Lin.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS