Chen Chi-hsiang (陳啟祥), a key suspect in a case of alleged bribery involving former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世), was detained and questioned by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division (SID) yesterday.
Chen, head of Ti Yung Co (地勇選礦公司), a metal-recycling company, has accused Lin of accepting a bribe of NT$63 million (US$2.15 million) to help him secure procurement contracts from China Steel Corp (中鋼) and two of its subsidiaries in 2010, and of asking for a further NT$83 million this year.
Chen, who allegedly went into hiding after the Chinese-language Next Magazine published his accusation on Wednesday, was arrested on Friday night at a hotel in Taipei City.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Chen was yesterday named a defendant in the investigation and was released after being questioned for 12 hours.
Lin on Friday was also named a defendant in the case and is expected to be summoned for questioning over the next few days.
SID spokesman Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達) told a press conference yesterday that the agency launched an investigation into the case soon after Next Magazine published the allegation on Wednesday.
SID prosecutor Tsai-Hung-jen (蔡宏仁) is in charge of the case, Chen Hung-ta said, adding that Tsai subpoenaed Chen Chi-hsiang to testify as a witness, but when the notice was delivered to his residence in Greater Kaohsiung, Chen Chi-hsiang was not at home and appeared to have severed connections with his family and friends.
It was later discovered that Chen Chi-hsiang had spent the past few days at a hotel in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義). Tsai and investigators arrested him in his hotel room at 11pm on Friday, the spokesman said.
According to Chen Hung-ta, Chen Chi-hsiang immediately called three attorneys, who came to the hotel, and then declined to be questioned until the next day.
A female friend of Chen Chi-hsiang was with him at the hotel and prosecutors interviewed her as a witness yesterday morning, Chen Hung-ta said, adding that after considering the degree of Chen Chi-hsiang’s suspected involvement in the case prosecutors had decided to name him as a defendant.
Separately yesterday, Lin’s lawyer, KMT Taipei City Councilor Lai Su-ju (賴素如), said her client was willing to meet with Chen Chi-hsiang face to face.
“However, Lin will not respond to accusations made by members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). This is not a political issue, it is a legal one. It is therefore desirable to avoid giving the DPP the opportunity to manipulate it for its own political ends,” she said.
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS