Pingtung County prosecutors on Monday filed an appeal against the Taiwan High Court’s decision last month to acquit all 12 suspects in a vote-buying case involving Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chien Tung-ming (簡東明).
The case stemmed from the 2016 legislative election, which led to one of the largest judicial investigations into illegal payments during election campaigns that saw more than 200 people questioned and 158 indicted.
Pingtung prosecutors said they decided to file an appeal after reviewing the evidence and financial records of Chien and the local KMT office.
An investigation suggested that while campaigning for the mountain Aboriginal district legislator seat, Chien gave each local KMT official more than NT$100,000 (US$3,235 at current exchange rate) in exchange for a list of the names of party cadres, campaign workers, and town and village residents affiliated with the party.
Prosecutors cited testimony from witnesses and suspects, with one person quoted as saying: “We were told to disburse money to residents in the voting constituencies, and to instruct them to vote for Chien when they receive the money. Patry cadres were paid NT$3,000 each, while regular party members were given NT$1,500 each.”
During the trial, Chien, his campaign staff and KMT officials admitted to disbursing money to party workers and residents, but said it was not vote-buying, but rather payment or reimbursement for their work on the election campaign.
On April 3, the Taiwan High Court’s Kaohsiung Branch overturned an earlier verdict and acquitted Chien and 11 other defendants of all charges.
In the first ruling in June 2017, Chien was given a five-year and six-month prison sentence. It was reduced to four years in the second ruling in January last year.
Pingtung prosecutors said that the judges in the last trial had erred in assessing the financial records, as Chien and the KMT had provided proof of hiring people to work on the campaign and documents that they paid a total of NT$177,500 for labor insurance.
Assuming the campaign had paid NT$355 in labor insurance premium per person per month, it should have employed 200 people for the job.
However, prosecutors said they only found 84 people listed as having labor insurance coverage.
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