Prosecutors have detained Miaoli County Councilor Chiang Chun-kuei (江村貴) over a corruption scandal involving the hiring of public sector workers dating from his time as mayor of Touwu Township (頭屋).
Chiang, 57, secretary-general of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus at the Miaoli County Council, served as the township’s mayor from 2011 to 2018.
He was detained on Thursday after prosecutors raided seven locations in the township and held him and 12 others for questioning.
A district court judge approved prosecutors’ request for Chiang to be held in detention with restricted communications, citing sufficient evidence of his involvement, along with the likelihood of him colluding with other suspects and tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors said Chiang was alleged to have received bribes related to public construction projects and in exchange for approving the hiring of employees, reportedly mostly in the public sanitary and environmental protection departments.
Chiang and six others, including contractors and township employees who reportedly paid for their jobs, could be charged with contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), prosecutors said.
Those six were later released on bail ranging from NT$50,000 to NT$100,000.
The six others picked up in the raids on Thursday were questioned as witnesses.
In other developments on Thursday, more officials were detained as part of a corruption probe in Hsinchu County in connection with several real-estate projects in Hukou Township (湖口), including Deputy Fire Chief Chen Chung-chen (陳中振).
Chen was placed in detention with restricted communications.
Prosecutors are probing the dealings of a construction company owner surnamed Huang (黃), who was questioned last month and later released on NT$100,000 bail.
Chen allegedly colluded with Huang’s firm and other county officials to go easy on fire safety, wastewater treatment and other building code inspections, prosecutors said.
The probe was launched last month, and the deputy chief of the Environmental Protection Agency and the head of the Consumer Protection Agency have been implicated so far.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS