A man indicted for faking a marriage with a high-school student who died under suspicious circumstances was yesterday sentenced to 18 months in jail.
The verdict can be appealed.
The man, surnamed Hsia (夏), was found guilty by the Taichung District Court of forging documents that caused a “civil servant to make a false entry in public records” after it concluded that Hsia did not marry the 18-year-old, surnamed Lai (賴), for genuine reasons, but for his fortune.
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
Lai had been gifted properties worth NT$500 million (US$15.41 million) by his father.
Hsia “severely undermined and abused the marriage registration system established by civil law under particularly serious circumstances,” the court said in a press release outlining its verdict.
Hsia was indicted in June last year on forgery charges about seven weeks after Lai’s death on May 4 last year.
Lai was found dead following a fall from Hsia’s 10th-floor apartment building just two hours after the two legally registered their marriage.
Hsia and his father, a land office agent who helped Lai’s father handle his properties, witnessed Lai’s father sign a contract in January last year gifting NT$500 million in properties to his 18-year-old son, the court said.
The process of handing over the properties was completed in late April last year, at about the same time Lai’s father died after a fall in a bathroom, it said.
Seeing an opportunity, Hsia concocted the marriage scheme out of greed for Lai’s wealth, putting the plan into action soon after the paperwork for the properties was completed, it said.
There was no evidence of a romantic relationship between the two men, and no indication of Lai being homosexual or bisexual, the court said, citing statements from his classmates and a teacher.
Hsia “exhibited a high degree of malicious intent and a severe deviation from legal norms,” the court said, adding that the jail term cannot be commuted to a fine.
Despite the suspicious circumstances of Lai’s death, prosecutors did not charge Hsia with murder due to a lack of evidence.
Hsu Che-wei (許哲維), a lawyer hired by Lai’s mother, who was the second wife of Lai’s father, applauded the ruling.
Lai’s mother is preparing to file a civil suit to annul the marriage, which would be critical to determining the distribution of the properties held by her son at the time of his death, Hsu said.
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