Prosecutors have detained Miaoli County Councilor Chiang Chun-kuei (江村貴) over a corruption scandal involving the hiring of public sector workers dating from his time as mayor of Touwu Township (頭屋).
Chiang, 57, secretary-general of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus at the Miaoli County Council, served as the township’s mayor from 2011 to 2018.
He was detained on Thursday after prosecutors raided seven locations in the township and held him and 12 others for questioning.
A district court judge approved prosecutors’ request for Chiang to be held in detention with restricted communications, citing sufficient evidence of his involvement, along with the likelihood of him colluding with other suspects and tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors said Chiang was alleged to have received bribes related to public construction projects and in exchange for approving the hiring of employees, reportedly mostly in the public sanitary and environmental protection departments.
Chiang and six others, including contractors and township employees who reportedly paid for their jobs, could be charged with contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), prosecutors said.
Those six were later released on bail ranging from NT$50,000 to NT$100,000.
The six others picked up in the raids on Thursday were questioned as witnesses.
In other developments on Thursday, more officials were detained as part of a corruption probe in Hsinchu County in connection with several real-estate projects in Hukou Township (湖口), including Deputy Fire Chief Chen Chung-chen (陳中振).
Chen was placed in detention with restricted communications.
Prosecutors are probing the dealings of a construction company owner surnamed Huang (黃), who was questioned last month and later released on NT$100,000 bail.
Chen allegedly colluded with Huang’s firm and other county officials to go easy on fire safety, wastewater treatment and other building code inspections, prosecutors said.
The probe was launched last month, and the deputy chief of the Environmental Protection Agency and the head of the Consumer Protection Agency have been implicated so far.
Typhoon Chanthu could make landfall as far north as Yilan or Hualien counties late tomorrow night, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday, adding that a land alert could be issued this afternoon or tomorrow morning. The bureau also said that it could possibly issue a sea alert late last night or early this morning. As of 2pm yesterday, Chanthu was 960km southeast of Pingtung County’s Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻). It was moving northwest at 15kph, but was projected to shift northward as it approached the Taiwan Strait due to a weakening Pacific high-pressure system, the bureau said. The bureau is closely monitoring the typhoon,
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