The Taichung branch of the High Court today upheld a combined sentence of eight years and four months imposed on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) by the Taichung District Court after being found guilty of corruption and forgery, rejecting his appeal.
The corruption conviction can be appealed.
If the ruling is finalized, Yen would no longer be qualified for his office, as he has been deprived of his civil rights over the corruption charges.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
In response to the ruling, Yen said that it was obviously judicial persecution and unacceptable.
This is an era when politics overrides the judiciary, and judicial persecution is used as a tool to remove rivals, he said outside the court.
Prosecutors launched a large-scale investigation within a week after he announced that he would run in the 2023 legislative election, he said.
He denied wrongdoing, vowing to clear his name and prove his innocence in the upcoming legal procedures.
Yen was sentenced to seven years and 10 months for contravening Article 5 of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) by making unlawful profits or withholding public funds through the guise of paying a legislative office assistant, the Taichung District Court ruled in July last year.
For the corruption charges, the court ordered the confiscation of NT$1.08 million (US$32,896) from Yen as illegal profits from pocketing the wages of an office assistant.
The court deprived Yen of his civil rights for three years.
The court also convicted Yen on forgery charges and sentenced him to six months, based on a transaction regarding his family mansion in Taichung’s Shalu District (沙鹿).
The building had stirred controversy earlier, as it was partially on state-owned land and an environmental protection area.
Yen was found not guilty of illegal acquisition of state-owned land.
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