Keelung City Council Speaker Huang Ching-tai (黃景泰) was released on bail of NT$2 million (US$66,650) yesterday afternoon by the Keelung District Court after the Taiwan High Court a day earlier ordered the district court to reconsider its previous decision to release him on bail.
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office asked on Wednesday that Huang be detained on suspicion of influence peddling in a number of construction projects, while the district court on Thursday morning ruled that Huang be released on bail of NT$1.2 million, but barred him from traveling overseas.
After prosecutors appealed the ruling with the Taiwan High Court, the High Court on Thursday ordered the district court to reconsider whether to detain Huang, adding that Huang has not cleared up the source of NT$5 million in cash that was found in his office by investigators.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Huang made six telephone calls and sent two text messages to a woman surnamed Chang (張) while investigators were searching his office, suggesting he might conspire on statements if he is set free, the High Court said.
The district court held a hearing at 11am yesterday and announced at 5pm that Huang was to be released on NT$2 million bail.
The district prosecutors’ office immediately appealed the decision with the High Court for the second time.
Huang, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), was questioned by prosecutors on suspicion of involvement in pressuring Keelung City Government officials on construction projects.
The prosecutors on Tuesday found stashes of cash in New Taiwan dollars and Chinese renminbi with an estimated total value of NT$5 million in Huang’s office.
In other news, former Chiayi County council speaker Yu Cheng-tah (余政達) was placed on the wanted list yesterday by the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office after he failed to report to the office to serve a prison term.
The warrant will remain in effect for 50 years, until 2064.
The 53-year-old’s guilty verdict, for soliciting a bribe of NT$1 million from local businessmen in 2007 when the county organized street fairs for the Taiwan Lantern Festival, was upheld by the Supreme Court on May 22.
In the final verdict on the case, the Supreme Court gave Yu a prison sentence of 10 years and four months, and suspended his civil rights for five years.
Yu was reported missing right after the Supreme Court’s announcement was made.
The office said it issued a warrant ordering Yu, an independent, to turn himself in on June 6 to start his sentence, but Yu failed to arrive at the office.
The office suspected that Yu might have fled to China or another country.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
RSS