The New Taipei City District Court yesterday approved a motion to detain a former city council deputy speaker and hold him incommunicado on suspicion of embezzling public funds.
Prosecutors said they filed the motion early yesterday to have Chen Wen-chih (陳文治) detained to prevent him from fleeing the country or colluding with others in tampering with evidence amid an ongoing investigation.
Due to the severity of the crime, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, the court granted the request, the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Chen was first elected as a Democratic Progressive Party Taipei County councilor in 1998, before it was upgraded to a special municipality and renamed New Taipei City.
He served as deputy speaker of the New Taipei City Council from 2014 to 2018, and retired from the city council last year.
Chen is suspected of misappropriating public funds by filing false reports of salaries paid to office assistants during his service as an elected official from 1999 to 2021, which involved millions of New Taiwan dollars, prosecutors said.
Chen was among eight people who were questioned by prosecutors on Thursday over their roles in the case, following raids across several locations, including Chen’s residence.
The other suspects were released on bail of between NT$10,000 and NT$50,000 after questioning.
The former deputy speaker has been embroiled in another ongoing corruption case that dates back to 2021, which led to his indictment in April this year.
He was later detained, but subsequently released on bail of NT$600,000.
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