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
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS