Former Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) chairman Wei Ying-chun (魏應充) was yesterday taken to Taipei Prison to resume serving a combined prison term he had been given over a tainted cooking oil scandal that erupted in 2014.
While declining to be interviewed by reporters outside the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, Wei recited a passage he had written to express his feelings: “Treat others with sincerity; be righteous and moral in your dealings; learn and grow from tribulations; treasure kindness and love and may all in Taiwan prosper.”
Wei was charged by the Changhua District Prosecutors’ Office in October 2014 for breaching the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法) after investigators found the company had imported animal feed-grade material from Vietnamese oil manufacturer Dai Hanh Phuc Co, and described it in its customs declaration as fit for human consumption.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The Supreme Court upheld a second appellate court ruling on Nov. 6 last year, which ruled that Wei was guilty of breaching the act and other offenses regarding the 2014 case, and sentenced Wei to five years and nine months in prison.
The prison term was reduced as part of it was commuted to a fine.
After the Taiwan High Court’s Taichung branch combined the prison terms from eight separate rulings that could not be commuted to fines, Wei was ordered to serve four years and eight months in prison.
He is looking at two years and nine months behind bars, as he had already been detained for 111 days and served one year and eight months in prison.
Prosecutors’ denied Wei’s appeal to delay serving his sentence due to medical reasons, on the grounds that his condition was not severe and could be treated by prison doctors, said Yu Ming-hsien (余明賢), Wei’s lawyer.
As Wei’s lawyer, it was not his place to criticize the judiciary, but the final ruling shows that there is still a long way to go until the judiciary can fully regain the public’s confidence, Yu said.
Yu said that prosecutors had not conducted a thorough investigation before charging his client and, referring to government agencies complying with investigations, alleged that administrative neutrality had been violated.
Opinions by food industry experts were dismissed by the court, causing bias against his client, Yu said.
Yu accused the court of succumbing to public pressure.
The case’s legal basis — that Dai Hanh Phuc was presumed to not have a foodstuff export license — was lost when Vietnamese media proved that Dai Hanh Phuc did not require such licenses, Yu said.
However, all was not lost and judges still had a chance to remain neutral as there are select parts of the case that have been remanded to lower appellate courts for retrial, Yu said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard