The Tainan District Court approved yesterday prosecutors' request to hold incommunicado George Chang (張燦鍙), mayor of Tainan, for allegedly defrauding the city government in a land requisition scam.
The detention of both a city mayor and city council speaker for the same case is a first in Taiwan politics.
PHOTO: WU HSING-HUA, TAIPEI TIMES
Prosecutors allege that Chang, a 65-year-old member of the DPP, improperly ordered the requisition of land owned by Speaker Huang Yu-wen (黃郁文) and illegally allowed him to receive government compensation in return.
Huang has been detained since March 21.
The court cited four reasons for Chang's detention. "First, the land requisition was not reasonable, fair or necessary," a judge and court spokesman said in a press conference yesterday.
"Second, witnesses, namely other suspects, have said that Mayor Chang played the lead role in the land requisition and took part in the formation of an agreement allowing the purchases."
Also, the court had been shown written instructions from Chang in the case. In addition, the court said, Chang had failed to provide his written instructions concerning the land purchases to prosecutors until yesterday's questioning.
Two previous searches by prosecutors failed to find the documents. The court found credible the prosecution's contention that Chang might "destroy other documents not yet seized [by the prosecution]."
Chang's lawyer, Lee Sheng-hsiung (
"It's the prosecution's business to find the evidence. They shouldn't say you may destroy evidence just because they couldn't find the evidence," he said.
"Otherwise, every suspect could be detained," Lee added, saying he would appeal the ruling.
The Tainan City government held a press conference yesterday, in which a secretary for the mayor said that Chang, in his capacity as mayor, only handled the broad outlines of the land purchases and left the details to underlings.
The secretary said if there is any problem related to the requisition, the responsibility should fall on the departments in charge of the matter, rather than on the mayor.
Since last month, five people have been detained in connection with the land requisition scam allegations, including Huang, his wife Chang Su-chen (
Several city councilors are also suspected of having cooperated with Huang in the passing of the land requisition budgets.
The prosecution alleges that Huang has made around NT$160 million in illegal profits, while Chang, the former chairman of the World United Formosans for Independence (
In the city government's press conference yesterday, Chang's wife Chang Ting-lan (張丁蘭) said she and Chang's supporters might petition the Control Yuan to address what she called "judicial violence."
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS