Former Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) chairman Wei Ying-chun (魏應充) was yesterday taken to Taipei Prison to resume serving a combined prison term he had been given over a tainted cooking oil scandal that erupted in 2014.
While declining to be interviewed by reporters outside the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, Wei recited a passage he had written to express his feelings: “Treat others with sincerity; be righteous and moral in your dealings; learn and grow from tribulations; treasure kindness and love and may all in Taiwan prosper.”
Wei was charged by the Changhua District Prosecutors’ Office in October 2014 for breaching the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法) after investigators found the company had imported animal feed-grade material from Vietnamese oil manufacturer Dai Hanh Phuc Co, and described it in its customs declaration as fit for human consumption.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The Supreme Court upheld a second appellate court ruling on Nov. 6 last year, which ruled that Wei was guilty of breaching the act and other offenses regarding the 2014 case, and sentenced Wei to five years and nine months in prison.
The prison term was reduced as part of it was commuted to a fine.
After the Taiwan High Court’s Taichung branch combined the prison terms from eight separate rulings that could not be commuted to fines, Wei was ordered to serve four years and eight months in prison.
He is looking at two years and nine months behind bars, as he had already been detained for 111 days and served one year and eight months in prison.
Prosecutors’ denied Wei’s appeal to delay serving his sentence due to medical reasons, on the grounds that his condition was not severe and could be treated by prison doctors, said Yu Ming-hsien (余明賢), Wei’s lawyer.
As Wei’s lawyer, it was not his place to criticize the judiciary, but the final ruling shows that there is still a long way to go until the judiciary can fully regain the public’s confidence, Yu said.
Yu said that prosecutors had not conducted a thorough investigation before charging his client and, referring to government agencies complying with investigations, alleged that administrative neutrality had been violated.
Opinions by food industry experts were dismissed by the court, causing bias against his client, Yu said.
Yu accused the court of succumbing to public pressure.
The case’s legal basis — that Dai Hanh Phuc was presumed to not have a foodstuff export license — was lost when Vietnamese media proved that Dai Hanh Phuc did not require such licenses, Yu said.
However, all was not lost and judges still had a chance to remain neutral as there are select parts of the case that have been remanded to lower appellate courts for retrial, Yu said.
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