Several businesspeople found not guilty of bribing former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his wife in exchange for banking interests will probably not face any further court proceedings, as the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s Special Investigation Division (SID) decided yesterday to give up a plan to appeal their not-guilty verdicts.
The prosecutors said it was with heavy hearts that they had decided not to seek another court hearing on their initial indictments of the businesspeople for handing over cash to the former first family in exchange for influence to help them acquire public bank shares during the so-called “second financial reforms” of Chen’s presidency.
They said they had to drop the plan because their hands were tied by a provision in the Speedy Criminal Trials Act (刑事妥速審判法) that says the prosecution cannot appeal not-guilty verdicts from the district and high courts unless the lower court rulings are unconstitutional, contradict the Judicial Yuan’s interpretation of the law or run counter to precedent.
Special Investigation Division spokesman Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達) said former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) used the money she got from the businesspeople to buy luxury homes in Taipei and signed fake leases to launder the money.
It was evident that the prosecution and the court had “different views” about how the case should be dealt with, Chen Hung-ta said.
The decision will almost certainly mean that several businesspeople, including former China Development Financial Holding chief executive Angelo Koo (辜仲瑩) and Cheng Shen-chih (鄭深池), former chairman of the Mega Financial Holdings, will not face further proceedings.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
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