Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) was questioned yesterday by Yunlin prosecutors over allegedly accepting a NT$5 million (US$151,000) bribe connected to a landfill construction project.
“Su was questioned because she is involved in alleged corruption. Prosecutors may file a detention request after questioning,” said Chiang Teh-lung (蔣得龍), spokesman for the Yunlin District Prosecutors’ Office.
Chiang said that Su was taken away from her residence as she was about to leave for work yesterday morning. Questioning began immediately after she was escorted to the prosecutors’ office and was continuing at press time last night.
PHOTO: CNA
Chiang said the alleged corruption began in September 2006. Ching-mei Technology Environmental Protection Co was contracted by the county government to construct a landfill site. The company spent nearly NT$70 million on construction, but the project was delayed because the environmental evaluation process was slow.
Several shareholders of the company decided to commission Ming-hsin Construction Co president Yeh An-geng (葉安耕) to “help,” since Yeh claimed that he had “connections” at the county government. Yeh then proposed providing NT$5 million as a bribe to certain government officials, in return for omitting the environmental evaluation so the project could be completed as soon as possible, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors discovered that Su allegedly visited Yeh on three occasions between June last year and January this year, allegedly to pick up the money.
“We have been investigating this case for a while and we believe that Su is involved and therefore need her to explain certain things,” Chiang said.
As Su was escorted back to the prosecutors’ office for questioning, Deputy Commissioner Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) and fellow Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters protested Su’s detention outside the office.
“We are protesting because prosecutors did not talk to the commissioner before detaining her. This is against normal procedure,” Lee said.
Su was elected three years ago and is Yunlin’s first female DPP commissioner.
Su is the latest of several former and sitting DPP officials to be questioned by prosecutors in recent weeks about alleged corruption following the detention of Chiayi County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) and former legislator and interior minister Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲).
DPP lawmakers yesterday lambasted the act as judicial persecution against DPP members.
In response, KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) urged the DPP to “stop discrediting the judiciary,” saying that “prosecutors’ anti-corruption efforts would not be suspended because of [Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait] Chairman Chen Yunlin’s [陳雲林] visit.”
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