Minister of Justice Luo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) yesterday vowed to investigate thoroughly and get to the bottom of a major corruption scandal in the prison system, where 19 individuals, including two head wardens, have been questioned by prosecutors.
The wardens and other officials at Taipei Prison and other correctional facilities are alleged to have received money in exchange for granting prisoners special visitor privileges and allowing their family members to smuggle contraband items into jails.
Luo convened a press conference yesterday to ask all prison officials at the ministry’s Agency of Corrections to cooperate with prosecutors on the judicial probe into the scandal.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“I feel pained at these revelations,” Luo said. “There will be no upper limit to the investigation. No matter how high the level of officials involved, we shall investigate them.”
She asked that officials make thorough inspection of prison cells — to ensure no contraband items remain in the correctional facilities — and to root out any bribe-taking.
Green Island Prison warden Su Ching-chun (蘇清俊), who was formerly deputy warden at Taipei Prison, is suspected of receiving bribes in exchange for giving special privileges to former Eastern Multimedia Group (EMG, 東森集團) chairman Gary Wang (王令麟).
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Jailed for violating the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法), Wang began serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence at Taipei Prison in November last year.
There are other inmates allegedly involved, but Wang is the most high-profile of the prisoners suspected of giving bribes to warden officials, arranged through his family and associates.
According to media reports, Wang was able to continue directing EMG business affairs while incarcerated, because he had the use of a cellphone and other privileges.
He reportedly conducted weekly business meetings through prison visits by EMG senior executives.
The investigation was headed by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, which coordinated other regional judicial agencies to carry out search and seizure operations to gather evidence at 39 locations on Wednesday.
Taipei Prison, Taichung Prison and Green Island Prison are involved in the investigation, while agencies and offices in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan County, Greater Taichung and Taitung County were searched.
As of yesterday, Taichung Prison deputy warden Chao Chung-chih (趙崇智) and Wang’s personal secretary, Hu Hsiao-ching (胡曉菁), were detained and held incommunicado after questioning.
Other suspects and witnesses questioned by prosecutors in the past few days include Su and Yilan Prison warden Wu Tsai-wei (吳載威).
A prosecutors’ office spokesperson said some senior wardens had received up to several million NT dollars in bribes, plus other gifts and benefits, over the past years.
Commenting on the case, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesperson Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said it shows how corrupt the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime is.
“Bribery within the judicial system is not an isolated case,” Huang said. “If we do not take good care of the problem, the entire judiciary might collapse.”
Huang said that since the KMT returned to power with the election of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2008, corruption cases within the government had increased greatly.
“We call on the judiciary to quickly launch a probe into the latest case and bring the offenders to justice, to rebuild public trust in the judiciary and bring an end to the KMT’s corruption,” Huang said.
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