The Taiwan High Court reduced the sentence of a former senior aide to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday to nine years in prison for taking bribes while serving as deputy secretary-general at the Presidential Office in 2002.
The high court also ruled that Chen Che-nan (陳哲男), 67, be deprived of his civil rights for six years.
The high court’s ruling represented a reduced sentence from the 12-year jail term and 10-year suspension of civil rights that was imposed on Chen Che-nan by the Taipei District Court in December 2006.
The high court cited evidence that Chen Che-nan accepted NT$6 million (US$197,270) from businessman Liang Po-hsun (梁柏薰) in 2002 and promised to use his job influence to settle two court cases involving Liang.
The High Court said Chen Che-nan remained unrepentant, but that it had reduced the sentence in consideration of his age.
The High Court acquitted Chen Che-nan of a separate insider trading charge involving shares of Chih Kan Technology Co.
Liang, 52, the chief witness in the case against Chen Che-nan, is a former vice chairman of the Bank of Overseas Chinese. He was sentenced by the Taiwan High Court to one year in prison in November 2002 for using his influence to borrow NT$5.3 billion illegally from several branches of the bank through dummy accounts in 1996 and 1997.
Liang was also sentenced to one year and two months in prison in a separate case in January 2003 for committing forgery in real estate deals while he was chairman of the Hsinchiehchung Construction Co.
Liang fled abroad in March 2003 shortly after he filed an appeal for a deferred prison sentence. While at large in China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Africa, he said that Chen Che-nan had accepted NT$6 million from him but had failed to fulfill his promises.
In an apparent attempt to stem Liang’s anger, Chen Che-nan later returned NT$3 million to Liang via a friend, but Liang said he wanted the full amount returned.
Liang was brought to justice after he returned to Taiwan from Hong Kong in April 2006.
He voluntarily submitted evidence to prosecutors to prove that Chen Che-nan had accepted two checks totaling NT$6 million from him.
Chen Che-nan can still appeal the ruling in the Supreme Court.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS