Prosecutors yesterday searched the offices of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺) as part of an investigation into allegations that she fraudulently claimed expenses to pay her assistants.
Prosecutors and investigators searched Lin’s office at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei and her constituency service office in Kaohsiung, before taking her in for questioning at the southern mobile workstation of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港).
When she was apprehended, Lin took out a sheet of paper and repeatedly shouted to the media: “Political interference in the Judicial Yuan. The Judicial Yuan is interfering in the primaries.”
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Lin has been leading in public polls to win the DPP primary for the Kaohsiung mayoral election next year.
Her constituency service office yesterday released a statement saying that as legislator, Lin had not broken the law, and all expenses claimed were legal and justified, adding that they would cooperate with the Judicial Yuan’s investigation.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office declined to comment on the case.
The Legislative Yuan issued a news release saying that the search of Lin’s office complied with regulations and it was notified in advance by prosecutors.
It declined to comment further on the details of an ongoing investigation.
Investigators completed the search at 11:10am, leaving the Legislative Yuan with four white boxes.
Lin, the daughter of the former Fongshan (鳳山) mayor Lin San-lang (林三郎), was first elected to the Legislative Yuan in 2001 as a representative of Fongshan in Kaohsiung.
In 2009, she was nominated as mayor of then-Kaohsiung County, but in the same year, Kaohsiung County merged with Kaohsiung City and the position was canceled.
Lin has been described as a “lone wolf legislator” due to her strong Buddhist beliefs and religious affiliations. She has also been involved in past controversies, including opposition to same-sex marriage.
There have been reports that three of her opponents, all legislators from the DPP’s New Tide Faction, might join forces and nominate a single candidate to face off against Lin.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said he respects the judiciary and hopes that investigators would find out the truth.
DPP anti-corruption committee head Chiou Jiunn-yann (邱駿彥) said a meeting would be held on Wednesday next week to discuss the case of DPP Taipei City Councilor Chen E-jun (陳怡君), who allegedly claimed NT$3 million (US$91,489) in fraudulent assistant fees, but whether they would also discuss Lin’s case would depend on the evidence and whether she is detained.
Meanwhile, the Shilin District Court yesterday in a second detention hearing ruled that Chen be detained without visitation rights.
Chen’s bail was initially set at NT$1 million on Thursday last week, but after the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office filed an appeal on Monday, the decision was overturned by the High Court.
Chen and her publicly funded assistant surnamed Chang (張), received more than NT$3 million from the Taipei City Council for assistant fees from 2019 to this year, which she allegedly filed under the names of four relatives.
Chen has been denied bail due to concerns of evidence tampering and possible risk of colluding with witnesses and codefendants, the court said.
Additional reporting by CNA
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS