Former Penghu County council speaker Liu Chen Chao-ling (劉陳昭玲) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), was convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to more than 10 years in prison, a court ruling said Wednesday.
After initiating a corruption probe in 2022, public prosecutors indicted Liu last year, resulting in her having to resign as speaker of the Penghu County Council, which she had been for more than 20 years since 2002.
The court found Liu guilty of charges in six combined cases, including taking bribes for personal profit and contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). She was given a sentence of ten years and two months and would be stripped of her civil rights for six years.
Photo: Liu Yu-ching, Taipei Times
Judges also convicted Liu’s office secretary Chen Shu-mei (陳淑美) as an accomplice in engaging in corruption and taking bribes, sentencing her to three years and 10 months in prison and suspending her civil rights for three years.
As this is the first ruling, both can still file an appeal to the high court.
Liu is best known for setting a record in Taiwan’s local council governance after serving as the council speaker for six straight terms over two decades from 2002 until her resignation last year.
Liu ran for county councilor when she was only 25 and after winning a councilor seat in 1982, served for more than 40 years in the Penghu County Council, first as councilor then deputy speaker and lastly council speaker for the past two decades.
After gathering evidence and testimonies, investigators said Liu received bribes totaling NT$1.76 million (US$54,487) through influence peddling and abusing her authority as council speaker to influence the appointment and hiring of employees at local government agencies such as education, health, transportation and the fire department.
An investigation revealed that after successfully facilitating appointments and hirings from 2017 to 2021, Liu received bribes from “persons willing to pay for a local government position,” such as luxury gifts, brand-name tote bags, donations to local temples and other indirect ways of transferring financial benefits to avoid getting caught accepting bribes in cash.
In the court filing, the judge said Liu and Chen “harmed the local government through corrupt practices and taking bribes, thereby eroding the public’s trust in the civil service system and casting doubt on clean, ethical conduct of government officials.”
During the investigation, Liu and Chen had received a warning about prosecutors and tried to erase video footage of county council meetings, contacted people who had bribed them to tamper with evidence and took other actions to interfere with the investigation, the court filing added.
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