The Tainan District Court yesterday sentenced independent former Tainan City Council speaker Kuo Hsin-liang (郭信良) to 13 years in prison for corruption.
In yesterday’s verdict, Kuo was also stripped of his civil rights for eight years after being found guilty of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) by receiving more than NT$13 million (US$406,657) through extortion and receiving bribes from an engineering consultancy relating to a land zoning project in Tainan’s Tiansi Borough (佃西).
The bribe was shared between Kuo and former Tiansi Borough warden Kao Chin-chien (高進見), who received a nine-year prison sentence and was disenfranchised for four years. Kao also received an additional six-month sentence for inciting and pressuring someone to commit perjury.
Photo: Taipei Times
Meanwhile, the court acquitted the head of the engineering firm, surnamed Liao (廖), of bribery charges, from whom Kuo and Kao solicited the bribe, but confiscated his mobile phone as evidence.
Kuo wrote on social media: “I did not use my position to take money from anyone, and had presented evidence during the trial, but the judges chose to believe the testimony of someone who is under investigation in another litigation case.”
Prosecutors said Kuo’s eight-year sentence is too lenient and that they would consider appealing.
Kuo was a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) when he served as deputy speaker from 2010 to 2018, and currently holds office as an independent Tainan city councilor. He has been a city councilor since 1998, winning seven consecutive city councilor elections.
He left the DPP in 2018 and made a successful run for the speakership as an independent, receiving support from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and other independent councilors, and served until 2022. He was replaced by DPP-nominated Chiu Li-li (邱莉莉), who still holds the office.
The judicial investigation opened in July last year with warrants to search more than 10 locations, including Kuo’s residence, constituency offices and office in Tainan City Hall.
Two months later, Kuo and Kao were indicted on corruption charges for allegedly using his position as speaker to extort money in 2021 by demanding bribes from an engineering firm for a rezoning project to construct a residential building in Tainan’s Annan District (安南).
Additional reporting by Wang Chieh and CNA
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