Ex-DPP secretary general sentenced to 9 months in jail
2014/03/26 22:40:25
Taipei, March 26 (CNA) The Taiwan High Court on Wednesday sentenced a former secretary general of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to nine months in jail for breach of trust and abusing his power to help a third party make illicit gains.
In a retrial, Wu Nai-jen was found guilty of changing a company policy while serving as chairman of the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corp. to allow a private company to purchase land owned by the enterprise that previously could only be leased but not sold.
The Taichung branch of the High Court ruled that Wu, who served as Taiwan Sugar chairman between April 2002 and December 2003, revised the "lease-only" policy before granting a land development company named Chunlung priority rights to purchase Taiwan Sugar land.
At the time, Chunlung was not qualified to be granted priority rights, the court said, and Wu was also found to have agreed to Chunlung buying the land before it was rezoned from farmland to land for industrial use.
The land deal, eventually finalized in 2004 by then Taiwan Sugar President Wei Wei, cost the state-owned enterprise more than NT$200 million (US$6.56 million) because the sale price was far lower than the market price.
Finding Wu guilty for illegally enriching the private company, the court sentenced him to nine months in prison. The former DPP secretary general cannot appeal the verdict.
Wu was sentenced by the Taichung District Court in February 2012 to three years and 10 months in jail for breach of trust and helping enrich Chunlung, a long-term supporter of former DPP Legislator Hung Chi-chang.
The district court also sentenced Hung to two years and four months in prison for breach of trust after finding Hung and Chunlung President Pan Chung-hao had visited Wu to discuss the company's plans to buy the Taiwan Sugar land it was leasing.
Pan was sentenced to three years and seven months on similar charges.
In early 2013, Wu and Hung appealed the verdict to the High Court, but the court rejected their claim and closed the case.
In April, however, Hung presented new evidence and requested a retrial, a request that the High Court eventually accepted, leading to the retrial that concluded Wednesday.
Aside from upholding Wu's conviction, the High Court acquitted Hung, arguing that there was no evidence showing his involvement in breach of trust, and Pan's sentence was reduced to eight months.
The case has drawn widespread attention because Wu and Hung are both DPP veterans and many heavyweights of the party, including former Chairman Tsai Ing-wen, believe they were wrongly indicted.
(By Chen Shwu-fen and Elizabeth Hsu)
