Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-29
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Four guilty verdicts and a fine were overturned by a court
Tuesday in the case of pollution of a river in Kaohsiung by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc.
The world’s largest chips testing and packaging group was accused of having released untreated wastewater from its K7 plant into the Houjing creek, thus possibly polluting the water as well as nearby rice fields. Following the accusations, the factory was shut down for a while beginning in late 2013.
ASE was accused of having falsified documents and neglected repeated warnings and fines, even going to the trouble of diluting samples in order to mislead inspectors, prosecutors said.
Four company officials had been found guilty and ASE had been fined NT$3 million (US$90,000) by the Kaohsiung District Court, but on Tuesday, the Taiwan High Court in Kaohsiung threw out those convictions, finding all four men not guilty and cancelling the fine for the company. [FULL STORY]