Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺) was released on NT$1 million (US$30,539) bail by the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday amid a corruption investigation.
Lin is restricted from leaving the country, taking boat trips and required to live at her residence or a designated location, the prosecutors office said.
Prosecutors on Thursday searched Lin’s legislative and local offices, as well as a temple in her constituency in Kaohsiung, amid two investigations, one over allegations that she filed fraudulent claims for assistants’ salaries.
Photo: Huang Chia-lin, Taipei Times
The searches were carried out simultaneously by prosecutors in Taipei and Kaohsiung.
Lin also faces a probe over an alleged abuse of power by engaging in activities that constitute a conflict of interest relating to her position as a public servant.
In 2020 Lin took a senior position on the board of the temple and allegedly exploited her image as a public figure to seek sponsorship from about 20 firms in Linyuan Industrial Park (林園工業區) in the city’s Siaogang District (小港).
She allegedly sought sponsors to help organize public events for the temple, which prosecutors said is a legal “gray area.”
Lin has denied all wrongdoing, saying that the accusations are from unsubstantiated and biased reports.
Prosecutors questioned an unidentified member of the temple.
The temple member was released on NT$1 million bail for suspected contraventions of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), while Lin’s younger sister was released on NT$300,000 bail in the same case early yesterday morning.
Prosecutors have also requested court approval to detain Lin’s younger brother and two members of her local office in connection with the temple case.
On leaving the prosecutors’ office at 7am yesterday, Lin told reporters that she is being targeted by “dark forces who chose to attack me at this time.”
Lin said that she has lawfully served Kaohsiung for the past 24 years, adding that she will fight to defend her innocence.
Lin, 52, served in the legislature from 2002 to 2008 before being elected again in 2011. She has been in office since then and has announced her intention to enter the DPP primaries for the 2026 Kaohsiung mayoral election.
Polls conducted by Chinese-language media, including TVBS News and Credere Media, have shown her in the lead among other aspirants from the DPP camp.
In a statement on Thursday, Lin’s constituency office denied any wrongdoing, saying that the lawmaker has always followed the law.
She will wait for the legal process to play out and prove her innocence, it added.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a