The family of former Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味) yesterday refused to sign a court-issued notice announcing the start of Chang’s prison sentence, saying that receiving the notice before receiving official notice of the verdict amounts to judicial oppression.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a 2016 guilty verdict by the Taiwan High Court’s Tainan branch.
The high court ruled Chang, 60, guilty of taking NT$30 million (US$982,318) in bribes from a contractor for a government-issued incinerator project while he was commissioner from 1999 to 2005.
Photo: Liao Shu-ling, Taipei Times
Chang was sentenced to eight years in prison and is to be deprived of his civil rights for four years for violations of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
The family refused to sign the notice because the proper administrative procedure was not observed, Chang’s daughter, Chang Chia-chun (張嘉郡), said.
Chang Jung-wei’s sister, Chang Li-shan (張麗善), who is representing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in November’s Yunlin County commissioner election, told a news conference that her brother is innocent and said that the guilty verdict was a result of political persecution.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) gave his view on the case on Clara Chou’s (周玉蔻) morning show on Hit FM.
The KMT’s apparent strategy of playing up the ruling as judicial persecution is a double-edged sword, Chuang said.
Chuang said he and DPP Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) both agreed that Chang Li-shan would pursue such a strategy.
However, while that could help consolidate support among traditional KMT voters, Chang Li-shan would find it difficult to persuade others that the verdict is an act of political persecution, Chuang said.
“It is not a light allegation, after all,” he added.
Tsai said that the ruling met public expectations that politicians should pay their dues when found guilty of corruption.
Seperately yesterday, DPP Secretary-General Hung Yao-fu (洪耀福) during a tea gathering with media commented on KMT Yunlin County chapter director Lin Wen-chin (林文進) who told supporters to “use our ballots and teach the DPP a lesson.”
The comments were illogical and incomprehensible, as Chang Jung-wei’s case has dragged on for more than a decade and is entirely unrelated to the DPP, Hung said.
Lin is giving the DPP too much credit if he believes that the party could manipulate the judiciary, he added.
“This is not a political incident, but merely an instance of a corrupt official [being sentenced],” Hung said.
The verdict would certainly influence voting in the county, he said, adding that the party would carefully observe how the situation pans out.
Additional reporting by Liao Shu-ling
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