Six former high-ranking navy officers involved in the Lafayette frigate scandal yesterday denied the charges against them and claimed that they were simply trying to purchase the best weapons possible for the country.
The six officers appeared before the Taipei District Court (
Prosecutors have completed their investigation and indicted the six former navy officers on charges of forgery and corruption on July 5. The first pre-trial hearing was held on Sept. 12 last year.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
It took Senior Prosecutor Chang Hsi-huai (張熙懷) approximately an hour to read the indictment against the former navy officers yesterday morning.
According to the indictment, which was based on prosecutors' evidence and interviews with the defendants and witnesses, the navy had inflated the price of the six Lafayette-class frigates purchased 11 years ago and illegally directed NT$10.8 billion to the French manufacturer, Thomson-CSF.
The six indicted former officers are former vice admiral Lei Hsueh-ming (雷學明), former vice admiral Yao Neng-chun (姚能君), former rear admiral Wang Chin-sheng (王琴生), former captain Kang Shih-chun (康世淳), former captain Hsuan Peng-lai (宣蓬萊) and former commander Cheng Chih-po (程志波).
At the hearing, Judge Liao Wen-yu (
Prosecutors suggested a 14-year sentence for Lei, 12 years for Yao and Kang, and 10 years for Wang and Cheng.
Prosecutors did not explain why they did not suggest any sentence for Hsuan, even though he was also indicted.
The defendants told Liao and two other judges, Liu Fang-tsu (劉芳慈) and Lee Jia-hui (李家慧), the same story. The former officers said they did not benefit the French manufacturer or accept any kickbacks, adding that they believe the charges against them are neither fair nor true.
"My colleagues and I tried our best to purchase the best ships for our country; even the Chinese government was trying to interfere and stop us," Lei said.
"Every step we took was authorized by the Navy General Headquarters and the Ministry of National Defense," he said.
"We did not make any unauthorized decisions. The prosecutors' charges were humiliating to us."
Lei indicated that Taiwan's navy had an agreement with the French manufacturer that no kickbacks were allowed.
"In that agreement, both sides agreed to abort the contract if anyone violated the agreement and the violator would be responsible for any losses," he added.
"However prosecutors did not mention this in the indictment."
The defendants' lawyers also complained to the judges that they did not have enough time to review all the details of the indictment and related legal documents since the last hearing.
Joanna Lei (
"Prosecutors spent three to four months reviewing the documents before today's hearing," she said.
"However, since the indictment was submitted to the court, we [the defendants and lawyers] have not finished reviewing prosecutors' charges. We need more time. Defendants' rights should be respected."
Judge Liao Wen-yu said that the court has given both prosecutors and the defense enough time to study the case.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
RSS