Newly-elected independent lawmaker Chang Li-shan (張麗善) and her sister-in-law protested in front of the Yunlin District Court for a second day yesterday as they pushed for her brother to be released on bail for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (
"I am just somebody's wife who is hoping that her husband can come home for the New Year," Wang Yueh-hsia (王月霞) said yesterday. "I hope that judges can begin to hear the case as soon as possible and allow my husband to be bailed out."
Chang Li-shan and Wang were joined yesterday by Wang's daughter Chang Chia-chun (張嘉郡) and 10 other relatives as well as Yunlin County councilors Chen Juei-hsiung (陳瑞雄), Lin Tsai-tien (林再添), Wang Shih-jen (王士壬) and Lin Yung-fu (林永福).
"My grandparents are not in good health and they simply want to have my father home for the New Year. I hope that this little wish can be fulfilled," Chang Chia-chun said.
The family members sat quietly in front of the court building despite the efforts of police officers to persuade them to go home.
"No protests or parades are allowed in the court building area. We hope that none of them have broken the law because of this," said Chen Chin-ling (陳金陵), director of the Huwei Precinct of the Yunlin County Police Department.
The investigation into the incinerator scandal began last June, when prosecutors received a tip-off from an anonymous Yunlin resident who claimed that county government officials -- including Chang Jung-wei -- had accepted a huge bribe in connection with the incinerator contract.
Last July, Linnei Mayor Chen Ho-shan (陳河山) admitted that he accepted a total of NT$18 million in bribes from contractors who wanted to ensure they would win the bid.
Chang Jung-wei went into hiding on Aug. 13 and was finally arrested by prosecutors and police officers on Dec. 9.
Yunlin prosecutors indicted him on Jan. 17, suggesting that he receive a life sentence.
By law, prosecutors are supposed to release a defendant on bail as soon as they have indicted him or her, or they can request an extension of detention for three more months.
Prosecutors asked that the former councilor remain in detention and judges granted the request immediately.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS