The Yunlin District Court rejected early yesterday a request by local prosecutors to detain Yunlin Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) without bail, but Su refused to pay the NT$6 million (US$181,000) bail set by the court for her release, saying she did not have the money.
The Yunlin Prosecutors’ Office had requested the court grant it permission to detain Su over suspicions that she took bribes from a waste disposal company that operates a landfill in the county.
“I have recommended that Su accept the court’s decision and post bail. But she told me she does not have the ability to come up with NT$6 million in cash on such short notice, “ said Su’s lawyer, Lee Jin-yung (李進勇).
Following Su’s refusal to make bail, the panel of three judges decided that Su would be detained for another two months.
Meanwhile, Su’s supporters yesterday continued protest activities outside the Yunlin District Prosecutors’ Office.
The office said yesterday that Su was suspected of accepting NT$5 million in bribes, via a friend, in three installments between June last year and January this year from a construction company.
The owner of the company, Yeh An-keng (葉安耕), is suspected by prosecutors to have passed the money to Su on behalf of a waste disposal company called Jingmei, according to Chiang.
The company, which operates a landfill in Yunlin County, is suspected of bribing the county’s environmental officers to obtain an operating license for the landfill in 2003 to avoid submitting the project for an environmental impact assessment.
It is also suspected of bribing Yunlin County Environmental Protection Bureau Director Huang Hui-yuan (黃揮原) into allowing garbage to be dumped at the landfill in excess of its capacity, according to Chiang.
The Yunlin Prosecutors’ Office and the Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice joined forces early on Tuesday to search 12 locations, including the Yunlin County commissioner’s Office, Su’s home and the Yunlin County Environmental Protection Bureau.
Su, Huang and an Environmental Protection Bureau staffer, Cheng Mu-tsung (鄭木聰) were also taken away at that time for questioning.
The court later ruled that Cheng could be released on NT$200,000 bail.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIMMY CHUANG
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