The Taiwan High Court yesterday ruled against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世), handing him an additional five-month jail term in a malicious accusation lawsuit related to a 2012 corruption case.
Lin has been serving a two-year sentence after the Supreme Court in August last year upheld a district court conviction for receiving a NT$63 million (US$2.04 million at the current exchange rate) bribe. He was also ordered to pay a NT$15.8 million fine.
It has been a fall from grace for the 50-year-old, who was once seen as a rising star in the KMT. He was elected legislator four times.
Lin was an important member of then-KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inner circle. In 2012, during Ma’s second term as president, Lin was named Executive Yuan secretary-general.
A judicial probe was initiated after Chinese-language Next Magazine in 2012 reported that Lin had allegedly asked for an NT$83 million bribe, of which he reportedly received NT$63 million, to help Kaohsiung-based Ti Yung Co secure a slag treatment contract from a subsidiary of China Steel Corp.
Lin at the time denied receiving the bribe and sued Next Magazine for libel, saying that the media outlet deliberately produced a false report about him.
However, evidence from the investigation, including audio recordings, showed that Lin had solicited and received the bribe.
In the first and second rulings, judges found him guilty for “holding properties of unknown origin” and related charges.
“Lin has been found guilty of malicious accusation, as despite knowing that he had received a bribe, he still went ahead and filed a libel suit against the media outlet,” the High Court said in a statement yesterday.
“Lin did not reflect on his wrongdoing and instead abused his government position and authority to convene a news conference at the Executive Yuan, at which he covered up facts related to the case,” it said.
“He attempted to use the justice system to obfuscate the truth from the public. Although he withdrew the case within a few days, he had already squandered judicial resources,” it added.
While they found Lin guilty of malicious accusation, the judges said that as he had admitted to wrongdoing in the trial, leniency was permitted in giving him a lighter five-month term instead of the three years and six months requested by prosecutors.
It was the second ruling in the case and can still be appealed.
Proceedings are still pending against Lin for charges under the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) of money laundering and receiving bribes in breach of official duties, for which the High Court had ordered a retrial last year.
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