Former Tainan City Council speaker Kuo Hsin-liang (郭信良) was detained and held incommunicado on Friday on suspicion of extortion and receiving bribes of more than NT$10 million (US$319,667) from an engineering consultancy.
The Tainan District Court approved the request by prosecutors to detain the 63-year-old Kuo, who is a city councilor in Tainan, and Kao Chin-chien (高進見), a borough warden, to prevent collusion, the court said.
Kuo was among more than 10 people who were brought in by prosecutors for questioning on Thursday over their roles in a land zoning project.
Photo: Tung Chen-kuo, Taipei Times
Prosecutors said that they conducted dawn raids on Kuo’s offices at the city council and constituencies, the city’s Department of Land Administration, and the residencies of other suspects.
Five other suspects were released on bail of between NT$50,000 and NT$300,000, while others were allowed to leave without bail after questioning.
Kuo was a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) when he served as deputy speaker from 2010 to 2018, and acting speaker briefly for two months in 2016, before he left the party in 2018 for a successful run at the speakership as an independent.
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