The Supreme Court on Monday last week upheld a decision to sentence two former police officers to prison terms of at least eight years for demanding or taking bribes from migrant workers.
The case originally involved three ex-officers, but one was later given a reduced sentence while the remaining two appealed their guilty verdicts, which resulted in the Supreme Court’s ruling.
From October 2012 to August 2014, the men, who were stationed at the Taipei Police Department’s Datong Precinct, took cash and gold necklaces from migrant workers who had absconded from their jobs in exchange for not handing them over to the National Immigration Agency, the court said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Former officer Lin Chang-ling (林長玲) took and demanded bribes valued at NT$79,000 from 2012 to 2014, while former officers Lin Yi-hui (林奕輝) and Tsai Chih-wei (蔡志偉) took bribes totaling NT$33,000, the court said.
Their case was first heard by the Taipei District Court, which in March 2017 sentenced Lin Chang-ling to 10 years in prison, Tsai to nine years and four months, and Lin Yi-hui to four years.
Lin Chang-ling was found guilty of forced seizure of workers’ property in addition to demanding and taking bribes, and Tsai’s sentence was based on him demanding bribes in addition to taking them.
Following an appeal, the Taiwan High Court in March 2019 upheld the sentences for Lin Chang-ling and Tsai, while reducing Lin Yi-hui’s sentence to three years and four months.
The case was then sent to the Supreme Court, which in December 2019 remanded it to the High Court due to a lack of evidence showing that Lin Chang-ling had extorted migrants and seized their property, and that Tsai had demanded bribes.
In a retrial in December last year, the High Court sentenced Lin Chang-ling to nine years and two months in prison after finding him guilty of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), and sentenced Tsai to eight years.
Lin Yi-hui’s sentence was reduced to 24 months and he was granted probation, as he had admitted to wrongdoing and donated NT$1,500 each month to the Taiwan International Workers’ Association between June 2017 and November last year, which showed that he had repented and sought to compensate for his actions, the High Court said.
Lin Chang-ling and Tsai appealed the ruling, resulting in the latest verdict.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
RSS