The Supreme Court has upheld the High Court’s verdict on a 2019 vote-buying case as well as the sentence of the main defendant — a prison sentence of three years and two months for contravening the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法).
The Supreme Court’s ruling is final.
Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises Changsha City Branch chairman Lin Huai (林懷) was accused of receiving funds from the Chinese Communist Party and using them to encourage others to cast their presidential ballot in the 2020 election for then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and their party ballot for the KMT.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Taiwanese who returned home from China to vote would be eligible for a 1,500 yuan (US$210) subsidy and 467 people took advantage of the subsidies.
The first ruling, issued by the Taipei District Court, gave Lin a prison sentence of three years and 10 months, while the High Court, citing that Lin pleaded guilty to contravening Item 1, Article 86 of the act, reduced the sentence to three years and two months while disenfranchising Lin for four years.
Chinese Women’s Federation deputy secretary Shen Bin (沈斌), China New Family Association chairwoman Chiang Ming-sia (蔣明霞), Hunan Shaoyang City Association in Taiwan director Chang Guo-jun (張國君) and Changsha City-based Taiwanese businessman Chuang Huan-chang (莊桓漳) were handed prison sentences of one year and eight months in the first ruling.
The High Court sustained that ruling, but considering that the four had only helped transfer the funds, compiled a list of attendees and had pleaded guilty, deferred the sentences for five years.
The four had to pay NT$200,000 to the state and undergo 30 hours of legal education. They did not appeal and their sentences were final after the first ruling.
Taipei-based Chinese Women’s Federation chairwoman Ho Jianhua (何建華) and Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises in Changsha deputy chairman Tung Chien-hua (佟建華) were declared not guilty in both the first and second rulings.
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