The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld corruption convictions for six Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Hsinchu county councilors and sentenced them to nearly two to 13 years in prison.
The verdict, which is final, concludes a series of arrests and trials dating back to 2013.
Jhubei District Councilor Lin Pao-kuang (林保光) was sentenced to 11 years in jail for accepting kickbacks on five occasions totaling NT$850,000 from contractors for Hsinchu school procurement programs in 2010 and 2011.
The sentence was a reduction from a 16-year term he received in a second ruling last year.
The others convicted were Liu Liang-pin (劉良彬, nine years, six months), Su Ming-hui (蘇明輝, eight years), Obaya Awi (also known as Chao Yi-hsien, 趙一先, eight years), Kuying Kalang (also known as Lin Kuang-jung, 林光榮, 22 months) and Hsu A-yung (許阿勇, seven years, two months).
The six are incumbent councilors, except for Hsu, who was elected in 2009, but was convicted of vote-buying and stripped of his seat in July 2011, and cannot run again.
The convictions mean that Liu, Su and Obaya Awi — who were seeking to retain their seats in the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections — have had their candidacies disqualified.
The other two are not seeking re-election, with Lin’s son contesting the district seat that his father held and Kuying Kalang’s daughter running in his constituency.
Two other defendants, KMT Councilor Chang Chi-hung (張志弘) and independent Councilor Cheng Mei-chin (鄭美琴), were found not guilty in the second ruling due to insufficient evidence.
Investigators said that those convicted had colluded with businessman Chen Yi-ting (陳益桯) and other contractors when purchasing textbooks, educational tools and upgraded computer equipment for elementary and junior-high schools.
The court found that the six rigged bids and leaked information to help specific contractors, who then charged two to five times the regular price for their products.
Chen acted as an intermediary, paying kickbacks to the councilors and school officials, the court said.
“The KMT has dominated in Hsinchu for too long, so hopefully this can change things,” Democratic Progressive Party Hsinchu County chapter director Peng Jui-te (彭瑞德) said. “The case shows that the KMT is very corrupt, with members using their political power to collude with businesses and solicit kickbacks.”
Prosecutors separately indicted 51 Hsinchu school principals and other school officials on charges of corruption, breach of trust and illegal profiteering in connection to the case, but most were acquitted in second trials due to insufficient evidence, conflicting testimonies and other reasons.
KMT Hsinchu County chapter director Chen Chien-hsien (陳見賢) said that voters should not link the corruption to his party, “as the case was due to individuals’ actions.”
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