Yu Wen (余文), a former secretary to President Ma Ying-jeou during his time as Taipei mayor, was released on parole yesterday after serving nine months in jail.
Wu was found guilty of graft and sentenced to 14 months for using fraudulent receipts to claim reimbursements from Ma’s special mayoral allowance fund.
Yu was a city government staffer when Ma was accused of misusing his special allowance during his eight-year tenure as mayor.
PHOTO: YU JUI-JEN, TAIPEI TIMES
The case began more than two years ago when the Special Investigation Panel of the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors’ Office indicted Ma and Yu on charges of corruption.
Prosecutors alleged that Ma had embezzled more than NT$12 million (US$400,000) from the mayoral fund with Yu’s help.
Prosecutors discovered that Ma had donated more than NT$11 million to charities during the same period.
Yu admitted to forging receipts to apply for funds for Ma.
The Taipei District Court handed down the first verdict on Aug. 14, 2007.
Ma was found not guilty of corruption. Yu, however, was sentenced to 14 months, which was later reduced to 12 months by the Taiwan High Court. The guilty verdict and jail sentence were upheld by the Supreme Court.
Yu was released early because of good behavior. He left Taipei Prison at about 10:30am, where he was immediately approached by reporters.
Asked whether he felt Ma should have pardoned him, he said: “I made the mistakes myself, so I should take responsibility.”
Yu told reporters he was thankful for the “many friends and family” who had supported him, but made no mention of the president.
He said he did not feel he had been wronged by the judicial system, because he had made mistakes in applying for the reimbursements for Ma’s expenses from the fund.
Yu denied corruption, saying, “I did not take one cent.”
When asked whether he felt he had been used as a scapegoat, Yu declined to respond, but said he would face his future with courage.
Yu said it would be best if he could find a job, but that no one at the Presidential Office had contacted him about the matter.
Before beginning his job hunt, Yu said he would spend some time with his family and enjoy his long-awaited freedom, adding that he had never truly appreciated his freedom until he lost it.
A tearful Yu said he wanted to apologize to his parents for the distress he had caused them and to thank his wife for taking care of their two children while he was away.
Yu said he had received much encouragement from many people during his imprisonment, but did not specify whether Ma had was one of them.
In accordance with tradition, Yu had a haircut and put on new clothes and shoes before returning to his hometown of Taichung.
When asked whether Ma would help Yu find a job, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) yesterday said the office had been in contact with Yu’s family and would be happy to assist Yu in any way should he require any assistance.
Wang said the Presidential Office regretted that Yu had not received a probationary sentence. Yu should have been entitled to it because it was his first criminal offense and “just a receipt problem,” Wang said.
Wang declined to comment on why Ma had not pardoned Yu, saying that Ma did not make anything difficult for him.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS