The Taiwan High Court yesterday reduced the sentence of former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Chen Che-nan (陳哲男) to seven months in prison for his involvement in a bribery scandal while serving in the post in 2002.
Chen’s sentence was cut to seven months, from a nine-year jail term handed out in his last trial.
The High Court cited evidence that Chen accepted NT$6 million (US$197,200) from businessman Liang Po-hsun (梁柏薰) in 2002 and promised in return to use his influence to settle two court cases involving Liang.
In both Chen’s first and second trials, handled respectively by the Taipei District Court and the Taiwan High Court, he was found guilty and given hefty sentences.
However, after Chen won an appeal which led to the third trial, yesterday’s ruling said because Chen’s post at the Presidential Office did not involve conducting judicial investigations, the money Chen took was unrelated to his work and hence Chen committed fraud, and not corruption.
Saying that they found the ruling unacceptable, the prosecutors said yesterday they would appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
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