The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a verdict by the Taiwan High Court and the Kaohsiung District Court sentencing Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (
According to Article 79 of the Law on Local Government Systems (地方制度法), the Executive Yuan will relieve Chu of his position as a Kaohsiung City councilor.
He will also lose his speakership and constitutional immunity. Chu will have to begin his jail term when summoned.
According to the Taiwan High Court's verdict, upheld by the Supreme Court yesterday, Chu was sentenced to 22 months in prison and his civil rights will be suspended for three years.
His campaign assistant, Cheng Ming-chin (
The Supreme Court's decision exhausts Chu's avenues for appeal.
"We have carefully reviewed the entire case and did not discover any flaw in the high court's verdict. As a result, we decided to uphold the verdict and make it final," said Chang Hsin-hsiung (
Chang said the high court's verdict was made based on prosecutors' interrogations with the defendants and witnesses, as well as the NT$50,000 which was later confirmed to be bribe money. He said the verdict was perfect and clear.
As of press time yesterday, Cabinet officials said they had not received the official verdict, which usually takes seven to 10 days to be delivered, so they cannot comment on the case.
Chu said he was calm upon hearing that his appeal had been rejected.
"I am still a councilor and I still have my obligation to serve my supporters. I have not thought about what to do at this moment," Chu said.
Chu and Cheng tried to buy votes for NT$500 each during the Dec. 1 election for Kaohsiung City council.
The Kaohsiung District Court sentenced Chu to 22 months in jail and suspended his civil rights for three years.
For Cheng, judges decided to put him away for 18 months and suspend his civil rights for three years.
Chu and Cheng appealed to the Taiwan High Court's Kaohsiung Branch. In May, the high court upheld the district court's decision on Chu.
High court judges decided to decrease Cheng's sentence from 18 months to nine months and civil-rights suspension from three years to two years because Cheng cooperated with prosecutors during the investigation and confessed to the crime.
In addition to this case, Chu has been indicted, and prosecutors are recommending a 30-month sentence, for his allegedly buying votes for NT$5 million each during last year's city council speakership election.
Kaohsiung District Court Presiding Judge Lin Shui-cheng (林水城) has requested that Chu be arrested, saying he has dodged his summons by using flimsy excuses.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS