Three senior Taiwan High Court judges and a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) county commissioner were indicted on corruption charges yesterday, in what have been called the worst graft scandals to involve the nation’s top judiciary in years.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Panel indicted a total of 13 individuals in two separate cases involving the three High Court judges, including a Banciao (板橋) prosecutor, a retired judge and two lawyers.
Prosecutors said they are seeking a jail term of 24 years and a fine of NT$1.5 million (US$50,000) for High Court Judge Tsai Kuang-chih (蔡光治), who is accused of taking bribes during a corruption case involving former KMT Miaoli County commissioner Ho Chi-hui (何智輝), who was also indicted yesterday.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
They asked for 18 years and a NT$1.5 million fine for High Court Judge Chen Jung-ho (陳榮和) and 11 years and a NT$2 million fine for High Court Judge Lee Chun-ti (李春地), both of whom were charged with graft.
“What they did has tainted the judicial authority and led the people to lose faith in the judicial system. We therefore demanded a heavy punishment for them,” the indictment said.
One case stems from Ho’s indictment in 2004 on charges of receiving large kickbacks during the development phase of the Tongluo expansion of the Hsinchu Science Park in Miaoli County. He was convicted in 2006 and sentenced to 19 years in prison, a verdict that he appealed to the Taiwan High Court. Chen, Lee and Tsai heard his appeal and in May of this year, Chen and Lee found Ho not guilty.
Prosecutors claim that in April, Ho and his secretary, Hsieh Yen-jen (謝燕貞), gave Banciao prosecutor Chiu Mao-jung (邱茂榮) a NT$3.5 million bribe, of which NT$2 million was allegedly handed to Lee, while Chiu kept the rest.
Prosecutors alleged that Ho and Hsieh gave Tsai’s girlfriend, Huang Lai Jui-jen (黃賴瑞珍), NT$2 million in cash, of which Tsai and Huang are believed to have kept NT$500,000, with Tsai delivering NT$1.5 million to Chen at his High Court office.
Prosecutors asked for a three-year sentence for Chiu.
Revelations about the case led to Judicial Yuan president Lai In-jaw’s (賴英照) resignation in July to take responsibility for the scandal and prompted President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to renew his promise to build a clean government and to pledge to set up an anti-corruption watchdog agency.
In the second case, prosecutors requested 11 years for former Taiwan High Court judge Fang A-sheng (房阿生), who is suspected of taking bribes from Chang Ping-lung (張炳龍), a former judge at the High Court’s Hualien branch, to help clear Chang in a 2005 corruption trial.
Chang had been charged with taking NT$300,000 from a plaintiff in return for delivering a not guilty verdict. He was found guilty in previous trials before his case was assigned to a fourth retrial. Although a panel of three judges, including Fang, found him not guilty, at a fifth retrial he was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Chang fled to China before he could be jailed and remains there.
Prosecutors yesterday asked for an additional five years for Chang and four years for Chiu.
After the indictments were announced, State Public Prosecutor-General Huang Shyh-ming (黃世銘) said the Special Investigation Division (SID) would intervene and/or cooperate with local prosecutors in investigations of judges accused of bribe-taking or other corruption offenses.
The SID, which usually investigates corruption allegations involving the president and other senior government officials, would also intervene and issue indictments in corruption cases involving three or more High Court judges, or five or more judges or prosecutors at the local court level, Huang said.
Broadening the SID’s portfolio is aimed at streamlining discipline in the judiciary, Huang said in a written statement.
Additional reporting by AFP and CNA
MISINFORMATION: The generated content tends to adopt China’s official stance, such as ‘Taiwan is currently governed by the Chinese central government,’ the NSB said Five China-developed artificial intelligence (AI) language models exhibit cybersecurity risks and content biases, an inspection conducted by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The five AI tools are: DeepSeek, Doubao (豆包), Yiyan (文心一言), Tongyi (通義千問) and Yuanbao (騰訊元寶), the bureau said, advising people to remain vigilant to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets. The NSB said it, in accordance with the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), has reviewed international cybersecurity reports and intelligence, and coordinated with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to conduct an inspection of China-made AI language
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
DISPUTE: A Chinese official prompted a formal protest from Tokyo by saying that ‘the dirty head that sticks itself out must be cut off,’ after Takaichi’s Taiwan remarks Four armed China Coast Guard vessels yesterday morning sailed through disputed waters controlled by Japan, amid a diplomatic spat following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan. The four ships sailed around the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) to Taiwan, and which Taiwan and China also claim — on Saturday before entering Japanese waters yesterday and left, the Japan Coast Guard said. The China Coast Guard said in a statement that it carried out a “rights enforcement patrol” through the waters and that it was a lawful operation. As of the end of last month,
RSS