The Keelung District Court late last night granted bail for a city government official accused of using public household registration rolls to aid a recall effort against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors.
At nearly midnight, the court released Keelung Department of Civil Affairs Director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔) on bail of NT$400,000.
Two other suspects in the case — recall campaign leader Chi Wen-chuan (紀文荃) and Renai District (仁愛) Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) committee director Chang Chin-fa (張金發) — were ordered held incommunicado.
Photo: Lin Chia-tung, Taipei Times
The court said that it was unnecessary to detain Chang as he had admitted guilt during questioning, despite there being concerns of collusion and tampering with witnesses.
However, he is restricted to his residence and is barred from having contact with other suspects or witnesses in the case, the court said.
Chang is suspected of accessing the household registration system to assist with recall campaigns targeting DPP city councilors Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) and Jiho Chang (張之豪).
The court ordered Chi and Chang Chin-fa detained, as they are accused of the “serious crimes” of illegally using personal data in contravention of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) and forging private documents.
Prosecutors also found conversation records from a chat group in which Chi removed the original members and advised people to leave the group after a member shared a news article about the KMT headquarters in Tainan being searched in relation to another recall petition forgery investigation, the court said.
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