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.
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
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As Taiwan celebrated its baseball team’s victory in the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier12 on Sunday, how politicians referred to the team in their congratulatory messages reflected the nation’s political divide. Taiwan, competing under the name Chinese Taipei (中華台北隊), made history with its first-ever Premier12 championship after beating Japan 4-0 at the Tokyo Dome. Right after the game, President William Lai (賴清德) congratulated the team via a post on his Facebook page. Besides the players, Lai also lauded the team’s coaching and medical staff, and the fans cheering for them in Tokyo or watching the live broadcast, saying that “every
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