Prosecutors yesterday requested that five entertainers be sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for evading mandatory military service, among the 12 indictments issued for similar offenses.
The five entertainers prosecutors requested prison sentences for are actors Hsiu Chieh-kai (修杰楷) and Chen Bo-lin (陳柏霖), boyband Energy members Chang Shu-wei (張書偉) and Hsieh Kunda (謝坤達), and former boyband Lollipop member Leow Jun-jie (廖俊傑).
As public figures, the entertainers get a lot of media attention and have considerable influence over public opinion, especially the younger generations, prosecutors said.
Photo: Taipei Times
However, they still deliberately evaded military service, contrary to society’s expectations and shirking their responsibilities, they said.
Considering that their mandatory service period was one year and 10 months, prosecutors recommended that the court impose a prison sentence of two years and eight months.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday also indicted a suspect named Chen Chih-ming (陳志明) for contravening the Punishment Act for Violation to Military Service System (妨害兵役治罪條例) and document forgery.
Prosecutors said that all five entertainers paid Chen Chih-ming between NT$100,000 and NT$300,000 for falsified medical reports exempting them from military service in 2010 and 2011.
Chen Chih-ming allegedly directed them to request service status re-examinations and falsified 24-hour blood pressure readings to show hypertension, which exempted them from service, the indictment said.
From 2011 to 2014, Chen Chih-ming and an associate surnamed Lee (李) helped five other men, including one surnamed Ku (古), to obtain similar service exemptions, collecting fees ranging from NT$100,000 to NT$220,000, prosecutors said.
Chen Chih-ming exploited loopholes in the system, instructing men to hold their breath to affect blood-pressure readings or arranging stand-ins to take the tests, prosecutors said.
As he recruited accomplices, enabling many men to evade military service, prosecutors asked the court to impose a heavy sentence of six years in prison.
For others indicted in this case for evading service, prosecutors recommended a one-year prison sentence for those whose mandatory service period was four months, and two years and two months prison sentences for those whose service period was one year.
“We deeply regret our actions and will fully cooperate,” Hsieh Kunda’s agent said.
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