Kaohsiung judges yesterday added another 42 months to fugitive and former Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung's (
Kaohsiung judges Lin Shui-cheng (林水城), Chen Ming-chu (陳銘珠) and Fang Bai-cheng (方百正) yesterday announced a verdict for nine defendants, including Chu, his wife Wu Te-mei (吳德美), his sister-in-law Wu Pin-fang (吳品芳), former Kaohsiung City Government Civil Affairs Bureau Director Wang Wen-cheng (王文正), his campaign office director Hsien Chi-yu (賢繼宇), Kaohsiung's Happy Radio FM97.5 General-Manager Huang Hsin-chung (黃信中), and councilors Tsai Ching-yuan (蔡慶源), Tong Yen-chen (童燕珍) and Tsao Ming-hui (曹明輝). Chu was convicted of buying votes during last year's Kaohsiung City Council speakership election by paying each councilor NT$5 million to vote for him.
In addition to Chu being sentenced to 42 months in jail, Tsai was sentenced to 11 months in jail; Wu Te-mei, Wu Pin-fang and Wang were sentenced to six months in jail; and Hsien, Huang, Tong and Tsao were found not guilty.
Chu's sentence will be added to the 22-month sentence handed down in a separate bribery case involving the city council election. He was supposed to begin his jail term on Oct. 16 but managed to escape.
However, Chu has the right to appeal yesterday's sentence within 10 days after he receives the verdict.
None of the defendants attended yesterday's court proceedings. However, Chu's daughter, Chu Ting-shan (
Kaohsiung prosecutors indicted 40 people in the matter, including 34 councilors, one lawmaker and five of Chu's friends or colleagues who helped him distribute bribe money. Since the Kaohsiung District Court began the legal process in April, Lin, Chen and Fang have convicted 27 of the defendants.
In the meantime, six defendants were found not guilty while seven defendants' verdicts are pending.
"We will wrap up the rest of the defendants' verdicts before the end of the year," Lin said.
In the meantime, Chu's whereabouts remain unknown although rumor have it that he could be in China. Prosecutors and the police deny the allegation.
"We are still trying to track him down," said Chou Chang-chin (周章欽), Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office spokesman.
"Our investigations show there is no possibility of him [Chu] being in China," he said.
National Police Administration Director-General Chang Si-liang (
"I can tell you that the situation is under control but I cannot tell you whether Chu is in Taiwan or in a foreign country," he said.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
Tainan’s initiative to recruit digital nomads has resulted in several German, US and Vietnamese nationals applying to live and work in the city, the Tainan Research, Development and Evaluation Commission said yesterday. That marked the city as the first in the nation to attract digital nomads, following the launch of the program last month, it said. Although all applicants so far have used work visas or tourism visas instead of the special digital nomad permit from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the city government believes that the latter would be needed eventually, the commission said. The digital nomads recruited by Tainan would work
RSS