Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Tainan County Council speaker Wu Chien-bao (吳健保) yesterday started a two-year jail term for fixing professional baseball games.
The Tainan District Prosecutors Office said Wu, who reported to prosecutors yesterday morning, applied for a delay in the carrying out of his sentence, but prosecutors rejected the request and Wu was taken directly to the Tainan Prison.
The final ruling said that beginning in 2005, Wu ran an illegal gambling business that took bets on professional baseball games.
The ruling added that Wu and three La New Bears players fixed a game when the team played the Chinatrust Whales in Kaohsiung on April 28, 2007, making illegal profits of NT$8,650,000 (US$286,000) from the outcome of the game.
At the time, Wu was serving as an independent Greater Tainan councilor, but was dismissed after being found guilty in the final verdict.
In related news, the Supreme Court yesterday sentenced former prosecutor Wu Chieh-jen (吳傑人) to seven years and six months in prison on counts of corruption, rape, lewd acts and infringement of freedom of movement.
The sentence was a final verdict.
Wu Chieh-jen, who worked at the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office, was found guilty of committing crimes against more than 10 women who were targets of his investigations from 1999 and 2006, the Supreme Court said.
Wu Chieh-jen used his influence as a prosecutor to coerce the women to have sex with him, the ruling said.
Several of the victims were mentally and emotionally traumatized as a result of his actions, the ruling said.
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
The government would cancel kendo practitioner Su Yu-cheng’s (蘇郁程) nationality if he is confirmed to have represented China in the World Kendo Championships in Milan, Italy, last week, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. “We have consulted the Sports Administration and were told that athletes participating in the championships must have the nationality of the country that they represent. They must also present their passports as proof,” council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a weekly news conference. “If Su indeed represented China in the championships, we suspect that he has obtained Chinese nationality.” The Act Governing Relations Between the People of the
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