The Taipei District Court handed former KMT legislator Shih Tai-sheng (
The conviction marks the first time a legislative official has been given jail time for taking money in exchange for performing a special favor.
Shih, who had planned to run for a legislative seat next year, lashed out at District Court Judge Yeh Chien-tien (
"How could you make such a decision? You think you can go out of the court [safely]?" Shih told the judge. "Justice has gone. The judiciary is dead."
Provoked, the judge sternly asked whether Shih was threatening him. The former KMT-hand said he was not, but vowed to appeal his conviction to a higher court.
Shih, during his legislative tenure between February 1996 and January last year, had taken part in the budget review of state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp (
The court found that in April 1998, Ho Shih-kuei (
The contract was worth NT$1.5 billion a year to Ho. The court said Shih had used his authority in reviewing Chinese Petroleum's budget to press the state-owned company into halting the bidding process for a new transportation contract.
Specifically, the court found that in an April 1998 budget review meeting, Shih put forth a motion to halt Chinese Petroleum's public bidding proceedings. The motion was passed and the company was forced to halt bidding proceedings immediately.
For his efforts, Shih received NT$25 million from Ho and later funneled the money into stocks.
During the trial, both Shih and Ho said the NT$25 million was a private loan -- not a bribe.
But Ho also said that had Shih not helped him maintain the Chinese Petroleum contract, he probably would not have lent the money to the lawmaker.
Judge Yeh rejected defense claims that the NT$25 million was a loan, noting that, like most loans, the deal between Shih and Ho made no mention of interest rates or payment due dates.
Also, Yeh cited Shih's behavior in the legislature as evidence that the lawmaker had received the cash in exchange for performing a favor.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘LAWFUL USE’: The last time a US warship transited the Taiwan Strait was on Oct. 20 last year, and this week’s transit is the first of US President Donald Trump’s second term Two US military vessels transited the Taiwan Strait from Sunday through early yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, the first such mission since US President Donald Trump took office last month. The two vessels sailed south through the Strait, the ministry said, adding that it closely monitored nearby airspace and waters at the time and observed nothing unusual. The ministry did not name the two vessels, but the US Navy identified them as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit from