Former Executive Yuan -secretary-general Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) and former Veterans Affairs Commission minister Hu Chen-pu (胡鎮埔) were found guilty of corruption by the Taipei District Court yesterday.
Chen was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in prison for allegedly instructing commission officials to raise funds illegally in 2007 and then giving the money to four legislative candidates from various political parties.
In its ruling, the court also deprived Chen of his civil rights for three years.
Hu was sentenced to 10 years in prison for corruption and also deprived of his civil rights for three years.
The ruling also sentenced former commission secretary--general Cha Tai-chen (查台傳) to seven years and six months in prison and suspended his civil rights for three years, while another former commission official and three former officials of the commission-owned RPTL International received sentences in the case.
All defendants are able to appeal the ruling with the Taiwan High Court, the ruling added.
The ruling said in 2007 Chen asked Hu to solicit funding from RPTL International and other companies in which the commission had invested.
Hu secured a total of NT$1.4 million (US$44,000) from the companies and donated the money to four candidates in that year’s legislative elections.
The ruling said then--candidate Yu Tian (余天) of the Democratic Progressive Party received NT$1 million, while then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) received NT$200,000, and that Non-Partisan Solidarity Union candidate May Chin (高金素梅) and Taiwan Solidarity Union candidate Huang Chung-yung (黃宗源) each received NT$100,000.
Prosecutors added that Yu, Lin, Chin and Huang confirmed they had received the donations, but were unaware of the source.
The four did not break the law by accepting the donations and were therefore not indicted, the -prosecutors added.
Hu, who on Sept. 3 announced he would run in January’s legislative elections in Bade (八德), Taoyuan County, as an independent candidate, said the ruling was political persecution.
“It is obviously meant to try to stop me from running in the [legislative] election,” he said, vowing to continue his election campaign and appeal the case.
He said he was not the person who actually raised the funds, nor did he give instructions to do so.
Chen also called the ruling politically motivated and said he would file an appeal.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS