Former Non-Partisan Solidarity Union legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標) yesterday said his attorney has filed a request with prosecutors seeking for him not to have to serve a prison term for a graft conviction.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Friday questioned why Yen was still able to aid his son’s legislative by-election campaign for the seat he lost as a result of the conviction, while two other Greater Taichung politicians, who had been convicted in the same corruption case as Yen, started serving their prison terms last month.
At a press conference yesterday, Yen said the Supreme Court rejected his appeal by upholding the ruling of the Greater Taichung branch of the Taiwan High Court that he has to serve a seven-year prison term for corruption.
Photo: CNA
“The sentence is too severe and the court has been too strict on me,” Yen said.
Yen said that he had completed a prison term of three years and nine months in 2009 for illegal possession of firearms and making threats.
According to the law, he had completed over half of the seven year prison term and was therefore eligible to be released on parole, Yen said.
He added that if the prosecutors granted him parole, he would not have to serve the prison term.
His lawyer has filed a request with the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office requesting parole, he said.
The Supreme Court in November last year found Yen and Greater Taichung Council Speaker Chang Ching-tang (張清堂), an independent, guilty of misusing council funds between 1998 and 2000.
It said they spent more than NT$20 million (US$686,600) of the council’s budget at hostess bars and KTV lounges in then-Taichung City.
The court sentenced Yen to seven years in prison and his title as a lawmaker was revoked.
Yen’s son, 36-year-old Yen Kuan-hen (顏寬恆), was nominated by the KMT for the Jan. 26 by-election. He will be running against the DPP’s candidate, Greater Taichung Councilor Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱).
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