The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday read the second verdict in the trial of 40 people involved in a vote-buying scandal during the election of Kaohsiung City Council speaker Chu An-hsiung (
Deputy Speaker Tsai Song-hsiung (蔡松雄) was sentenced to two years in jail and deprived of civil rights for four years, for advising Chu's wife Wu Te-mei (吳德美) to buy votes from five city councilors.
Tsai can now neither vote nor run for election during the four-year period.
Ten city councilors received jail sentences ranging from six months to one year for accepting bribes.
The ten city councilors' civil rights were also revoked for four years.
Six of them were granted a four-year parole while the others have to be imprisoned.
While the ruling prevents Tsai and the ten city councilors from running for election, it does not affect their positions in the city council. They may appeal to the High Court.
The six paroled city councilors are Cheng Hsin-chu (
They each received a six-month jail term. The NT$5 million bribe each of them received was confiscated.
According to the verdict, Tsai Song-hsiung, who intended to run in the speakership election last December, originally had the support of five city councilors.
However, after learning that the DPP city-council caucus decided to nominate Chu as candidate for the speakership, Tsai Song-hsiung decided to run for the deputy speaker position instead.
Tsai met Wu in a Kaohsiung restaurant and advised her to buy votes from the five city councilors who originally supported him.
Wu thereupon gave each of the five city councilors a NT$5 million bribe.
Wang Wen-cheng (
The first verdict in the trial was read on July 29.
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