The High Court yesterday rejected the appeals of four defendants in a corruption investigation involving a redevelopment project in Taipei that has embroiled Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
Core Pacific Group chairman Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), former Taipei deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲), Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇) and Ying’s assistant Wu Shun-min (吳順民) all lost their appeals against the Taipei District Court’s decision to detain them late last week.
They are accused of contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) by illegally lobbying the Taipei City Government to increase the floor area ratio of the Core Pacific City project to raise its value.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Ko, who was Taipei mayor at the time, was ordered detained on Thursday after previously being released without bail in an earlier decision that was sent back by the High Court.
He can appeal the decision, but had not done so as of press time last night.
There was evidence Pong attempted to tamper with evidence and colluded with other defendants to lie about details concerning the case, the High Court said in its decision.
Sheen and Wu had no reason to appeal, the court said, adding that while Sheen had been granted medical parole, he was returned to prison and was continuing his treatment there.
Ying’s appeal was denied because her suspected crime is serious and holds a minimum penalty of five years in prison, the court said.
There is also reason to believe she might attempt to flee, collude or tamper with evidence, it said.
Ying was taken into custody after prosecutors found that she had attempted to fly to Hong Kong on Tuesday last week.
Prosecutors had stopped Ying at immigration and brought her in for questioning.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
RSS