Prosecutors have questioned more than 30 people as part of an investigation into alleged corruption and misconduct by Hsinchu City police, as city councilors accused local politicians and officials of pressuring law enforcement officials.
At least 21 city police officers and other high-ranking officials face charges of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), mainly arising from canceling traffic tickets.
As of yesterday evening, a bail court judge approved the detention of a detective surnamed Chang (張), while a police station chief and a police officer were released on bail of NT$200,000 and NT$120,000 respectively.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
The probe began last month with searches and a summons to question Sung Juei-chan (宋瑞展), a high-ranking police official, and Peng Hsueh-lei (彭學雷), first secretary of the Hsinchu City Council, on suspicion of taking bribes from operators of electronic gambling parlors so their business would not be raided or inspected.
Sung and Peng were put in judicial detention after questioning.
Prosecutors said they also had implicated several other retired and current police officials, and gathered material, including telecom records relating to canceling of traffic tickets and other issues, leading to the second wave of investigation, Hsinchu chief prosecutor Chou Mao-yu (鄒茂瑜) said.
Some city councilors said although they expect the judiciary to conduct a thorough probe, prosecutors must find out which local politicians are responsible for pressuring police officers to cancel the traffic tickets.
“Rank-and-file officers have for years come under a lot of pressure thorough persuasion, threats targeting their jobs and to cut city police department budgets. We demand that prosecutors check telecom records and reveal the local politicians, elected representatives and government officials, who also must abide by and respect the law, and not pressure officers to cancel the tickets,” Democratic Progressive Party Hsinchu City Councilor Yang Ling-yi (楊玲宜) said yesterday.
Political commentator and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member Lee Zheng-hao (李正皓) said the two waves of investigation have resulted in the “largest police corruption case” in Hsinchu, while the city’s Beimen Precinct has trouble operating due to more than half of its police force being under investigation.
Lee demanded that Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) member, resign from office due to her “bad governance.”
Kao is also being investigated in a corruption case related to when she served as legislator-at-large for the TPP from 2020 to 2022.
City councilors also accused Kao and city police officials of negligence in not acting on complaints.
Some Hsinchu residents over the past few weeks have said that underground passages of Hsinchu Railway Station have been occupied by people sleeping or sitting to escape from the summer heat, at times blocking pedestrians.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS