All the defendants in the Zanadau Development scandal yesterday denied the charges against them during the first hearing in the case, held at Taipei District Court.
One of them, Su Hui-chen (
"I do not understand why I have been indicted for paying kickbacks to those who promised me that they would help my company. I should be a victim in the case because it turns out that I paid for nothing," Su said to reporters after the hearing.
The two-hour preparatory hearing, for the purpose of establishing dates for future hearings and affirming evidence and the details of the indictments began at 9:30am yesterday and was hosted by Judge Hu Hung-wen (
Taipei Chief Prosecutor Lin Jinn-tsun (
They are Su, Lawson Corp president Lee Ming-che (
Su is charged with violations of the Securities Exchange Law (
Lee Ming-che is charged with corruption, forgery and breach of trust. Prosecutors demanded a 12-year sentence for him, alleging he was the broker behind the scandal.
Hsieh has been charged with corruption and faces a possible 14-year sentence for allegedly using Taiwan Fertilizer's money to buy Zanadau stocks and receiving bribes from Su.
Yu Chen is charged with violation of the Securities Exchange Law and breach of trust for allegedly manipulating Zanadau's stocks as the company's president in 1998.v
Wong is charged with corruption and faces a possible nine-year sentence for allegedly receiving NT$25 million as a bribe from Su.
Lin is charged with corruption with a recommended seven-year sentence for helping Su to secure a license for the construction of Zanadau's 12-hectare Tahu Commercial Zone (
Lee Ming-se is charged with breach of trust with a suggested four-year sentence. He allegedly helped Su gain financing from the bank, although Su had a poor credit history and was not qualified for the mortgage.
Mu, Huang and Fan are charged with forgery.
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A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
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