Former Chiayi County Council speaker Hsiao Teng-piao (蕭登標) left prison on parole yesterday complaining of victimization by Taiwan's judicial system and politicians.
"Taiwan's judicial system has treated me unfairly," he said. "This is not the first time that my enemies have used the judicial system to cut me down."
PHOTO: CNA
Hsiao was originally convicted for breach of trust in January 2000 over allegations that he abused his political office to gain loans above his credit limit from farmers' associations.
Hsiao, a political independent, spent most of 2000 in jail before being released to await the verdict of an appeal to the Supreme Court.
He was arrested again on Jan. 16 and detained at Yunlin Second Prison.
Hsiao spoke publicly of his incarceration as soon as he walked out of the prison early this afternoon.
He said he realized that he had many political enemies and that they had tried everything to make him end his political career.
"When Liao Cheng-hao (
Hsiao was charged with robbery, false imprisonment, extortion, blackmail, illegal possession of weapons and public order violations while Liao was justice minister in the KMT Cabinet from 1995 to 1998. All the charges were later dropped.
The grassroots political heavyweight went on the run in 1997 after being listed as wanted under the Chihping Anti-gangster Program (
After more than two years on the run, he turned himself in to Chiayi prosecutors on Sept. 17, 1999. He was detained for a week until the case was dropped for lack of evidence.
But he was arrested again less than a week later on breach of trust charges and held until his conviction.
"Regarding the charges of breach of trust on which I was convicted, prosecutors decided to indict me only two days after they began to investigate my case," he said. "It is hard to believe that our law enforcement officers were not influenced by political factors when they were working on my case."
He was convicted of the offense in January 2000 and remained in detention until December that year, when his appeal against the conviction was dismissed by Taiwan High Court. He was nevertheless granted bail pending his further appeal to the Supreme Court.
Hsiao had hoped to represent Chiayi in the legislature as an independent last year but was disqualified from running by the Central Election Commission after the Supreme Court upheld his conviction.
Hsiao was arrested on Jan. 16 after failing to comply with the Supreme Court's order to report to the Chiayi District Prosecutors' Office on Dec. 27 last year to complete his sentence.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry