Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday reiterated at the Cabinet's year-end press conference comments made earlier this month by the minister of justice that the arrest of former independent lawmaker Wu Tzer-yuan (伍澤元) is a top priority for law enforcement this year.
"Wu is regarded as a `black-gold' politician and it is our goal to get rid of all black-gold political activities this year," Yu said.
"In addition, we also hope that the courts can close more cases involving corruption, scandals and bribery. We need to get Wu back to Taiwan and wrap this case up as quickly as possible," he said.
Wu's appeal against a string of corruption and fraud convictions is pending at the Taiwan High Court.
Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南), stated at a press conference last Wednesday that the State Prosecutors' Office had established a special task force to track Wu down and arrest him.
The task force will lead the efforts, working with different law-enforcement agencies, including prosecutors' offices, the ministry's Bureau of Investigation and the police, to detain Wu.
"The thorny problem that we have now is that, according to our investigation, Wu is in China. That does increase the difficulties of catching him," Chen said. "But we are trying all means to get him back, including working with Chinese law-enforcement officers."
The Panchiao District Court convicted Wu on a raft of corruption and fraud charges in 1996 for his involvement, as a KMT member and director of the Taiwan Provincial Government's Planning and Development Department, in the 1992 Sipiantou (四汴頭) scandal involving a project to build a water pumping station in Taipei County.
Wu was allowed to remain free pending appeal.
In 1997, however, the Taiwan High Court upheld a request from prosecutors that he be detained.
In May 1998, Wu was released on bail of NT$3.6 million for medical reasons and barred from traveling abroad. Seven months later, however, he was elected to the Legislative Yuan as an independent legislator for Pingtung County, thereby acquiring the judicial immunity enjoyed by legislators during legislative sessions.
He won re-election on Dec. 1, 2001, and shortly afterward was named leader of a legislative delegation for a trip to Japan. The court granted him temporary permission to leave the country for that purpose.
On Dec. 29, 2001, the date of the delegation's departure, he took advantage of the opportunity to flee, leaving Taiwan.
His legislative office announced a month later that he had flown to Bangkok. The Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation later said that Wu had been spotted by its special agents in Guangzhou, China.
On Nov. 19 last year, the Taiwan High Court declared Wu a wanted man after he failed to answer a summons in connection with his appeal.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
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
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