The Kaohsiung District Court said late on Thursday night that the first pre-trial hearing concerning two-year-old charges of forgery and breach of trust against Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄) will be held on Jan. 10.
But the announcement will make little difference to Chu, who, having been re-elected to the city council on Dec. 7, will continue to enjoy the immunity from prosecution enjoyed by all elected officials from city and county councilors upward.
Chu, the 58-year-old independent Kaohsiung city councilor was elected to his fifth term in the municipal elections. He was then elected to the speakership of the council on Wednesday with 25 of the 44 city councilors' votes.
Chu and his wife Wu Te-mei (吳德美) were indicted on charges of forgery and breach of trust in 2000.
The couple allegedly withdrew NT$22.7 billion from the An Feng Group (安峰集團), of which Chu was president, pocketing the money for private purposes. In addition to indicting the couple, Kaohsiung prosecutors demanded a seven-year prison sentence for each of them.
Following Chu's election to the city's speakership on Wednesday, Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) complained that judges are delaying cases with the result that indicted suspects are not appropriately and promptly punished.
He accused the district court of inaction over Chu's two-year-old indictment and said that his hands were tied.
"In Chu's case, even though we have evidence against him, we can't do anything as he can't be prosecuted for at least the next four years," Chen said.
But Kaohsiung District Court spokesman Lin Shui-cheng (林水城) countered with a press conference on Thursday night, displaying an array of interrogation records, evidence and witness statements submitted by prosecutors, to explain the court's delay.
"Look at all this and you will realize why it takes such a long time," Lin said. "We have actually been doing a lot and have not been idle. Since Chu's case involves a huge amount of money and is very complicated, we want to be careful and accurate with the details provided by prosecutors so that we can produce a truly just verdict. That takes time."
But Lin also announced the Jan. 10 pre-trial hearing at the Thursday night press conference.
Lin's remarks were endorsed by Judicial Yuan President Weng Yueh-sheng (翁岳生) yesterday at the body's year-end press conference.
"It is our hope that some day people will have so much trust in the verdicts of district courts that they won't wish to appeal. To achieve that goal, district court judges have to be more careful and accurate about every decision they make. That is also one of the goals of judicial reform," Weng said.
Chu was indicted on Dec. 16 on a separate and unrelated charge of bribery, with prosecutors alleging that he paid NT$500 to each voter during the recent city council election. Prosecutors are seeking a jail term for Chu of two years and four months. Lin did not comment on when the first pre-trial hearing on these charges will be held.
DEFENSE: The National Security Bureau promised to expand communication and intelligence cooperation with global partners and enhance its strategic analytical skills China has not only increased military exercises and “gray zone” tactics against Taiwan this year, but also continues to recruit military personnel for espionage, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The bureau submitted the report ahead of NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign and National Defense Committee today. Last year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted “Joint Sword-2024A and B” military exercises targeting Taiwan and carried out 40 combat readiness patrols, the bureau said. In addition, Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace 3,070 times last year, up about
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
RSS