Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Tainan County Council speaker Wu Chien-bao (吳健保) yesterday started a two-year jail term for fixing professional baseball games.
The Tainan District Prosecutors Office said Wu, who reported to prosecutors yesterday morning, applied for a delay in the carrying out of his sentence, but prosecutors rejected the request and Wu was taken directly to the Tainan Prison.
The final ruling said that beginning in 2005, Wu ran an illegal gambling business that took bets on professional baseball games.
The ruling added that Wu and three La New Bears players fixed a game when the team played the Chinatrust Whales in Kaohsiung on April 28, 2007, making illegal profits of NT$8,650,000 (US$286,000) from the outcome of the game.
At the time, Wu was serving as an independent Greater Tainan councilor, but was dismissed after being found guilty in the final verdict.
In related news, the Supreme Court yesterday sentenced former prosecutor Wu Chieh-jen (吳傑人) to seven years and six months in prison on counts of corruption, rape, lewd acts and infringement of freedom of movement.
The sentence was a final verdict.
Wu Chieh-jen, who worked at the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office, was found guilty of committing crimes against more than 10 women who were targets of his investigations from 1999 and 2006, the Supreme Court said.
Wu Chieh-jen used his influence as a prosecutor to coerce the women to have sex with him, the ruling said.
Several of the victims were mentally and emotionally traumatized as a result of his actions, the ruling said.
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of
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