Vice Legislative Speaker Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) yesterday threatened to sue Chinese--language Next Magazine over a story in which it alleged that Tseng, along with a number of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, had helped arrange special visits for former Waterland Financial Holding chairman Walter Lin (林華德) to see his wife at a prison before Lin started serving his own jail sentence.
At a press conference in the legislature, Tseng said the allegations were false, as he had never met Lin’s wife, Sophie Yeh (葉素菲), nor had he issued an official document asking the Taoyuan Women’s Prison to arrange special visits for Lin.
In its latest issue, Next Magazine alleged that with “special help” from legislators, Lin was able to visit Yeh — who in November last year was sentenced to 14 years in jail for her role in defrauding NT$7 billion (US$227 million) from Procomp Informatic Ltd, where she was chairwoman — at the prison every Wednesday. Yeh had first been sentenced in December 2005, but her appeal lasted until November last year, when the ruling was upheld. She started serving her sentence on Dec. 8 last year.
According to the story, Lin was able to pay special visits soon after Yeh began serving her sentence.
The Ministry of Justice gives legislators privileges to pay special visits to prisoners. Legislators can bring prisoners’ families along on the visits, but in Yeh’s case, the magazine alleged that legislators filed applications for special visits so that Lin could visit Yeh by himself.
Special visits mean that the inmate and visitor are in the same room and only separated by a table rather than in two rooms separated by glass and connected by telephone.
An unnamed source told the magazine that the majority of lawmakers who helped arrange the visits were from the KMT, including Tseng. It did not provide the names of the other individuals.
Lin, who was accused of forgery and breach of trust for secretly helping Far Eastern Group chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東) gain ownership of the Sogo department store chain, started his jail sentence on Oct. 22.
Saying the magazine had tarnished his reputation, Tseng demanded it retract the story in next week’s edition or he would file a libel lawsuit.
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