The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a guilty verdict against former Taipei City councilor Lai Su-ju (賴素如) in a corruption case dating back to 2013.
Rejecting Lai’s appeal, the Supreme Court upheld a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence handed down by the Taiwan High Court, and suspended his civil rights for four years.
The NT$1 million (US$35,023 at the current exchange rate) that she received in kickbacks has been confiscated.
As Lai was to remain free until her prison term began, the court instructed the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office to ensure that she does not flee.
In 2014, Lai was convicted before the Taipei District Court, after being charged a year earlier with taking a bribe from a consortium led by Taipei Gateway International Development Co in return for ensuring that it won the tender to develop the proposed Taipei Twin Towers (台北雙子星大樓) project near Taipei Railway Station in October 2012 with a NT$70 billion bid.
She was convicted of taking a down payment of NT$1 million in cash from a bagman identified only by the surname Peng (彭).
The district court sentenced Lai to 10 years in prison and suspended her civil rights for five years, but Lai appealed the decision.
In the 2016 appeal, the Taiwan High Court sentenced her to nine years in prison and suspended her civil rights for nine years.
Lai again appealed and the Supreme Court asked the high court to review its verdict.
As a result, Lai’s prison term was reduced to seven-and-a-half years and her civil rights were suspended for four years.
Lai had previously been acquitted on charges of owning property of unknown origin and concealing the proceeds of criminal activity.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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