Former independent legislator Yang Tsung-jer (楊宗哲) was sentenced on Friday to 13 years in prison for corruption by the Taiwan High Court’s Taichung branch.
Yang was convicted for receiving NT$8.31 million (US$284,000) in bribes while serving as chief of Hsihu Township (溪湖) in Changhua County.
Yang’s wife, Yeh Mei-hui (葉美惠), was sentenced to nine-and-half years in prison for her role in the same case.
Photo: Liu Hsiao-hsin, Taipei Times
Yang, Yeh and other defendants can still appeal the ruling with the Supreme Court.
Yang was elected Hsihu Township chief in 1998. He and the township’s 12 representatives passed an order under which any firm that won a bid for township construction projects had to remit 25 percent of the construction fee as a commission. Under the plan, Yang took 5 percent of the commission while the 12 representatives shared 20 percent, the ruling said.
In the ruling, the court found that some of the money was used to fund the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential campaign ahead of the 2000 election.
The ruling added that Yeh had represented Yang in asking contractors for bribes.
The ruling said a contractor who won a NT$3 million road construction bid was asked to pay more than NT$600,000, but since it was known that he was in financial difficulty, they asked him to pay just NT$180,000.
The ruling said six of the 12 representatives, who confessed they took bribes during investigations and became witnesses for the prosecution, had already been found not guilty by a lower court.
Yang, Yeh and six representatives have denied taking bribes.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
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