Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-04
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Hsinchu County Magistrate Chiu Ching-chun was sentenced to four months in prison Friday after alleging that an election rival took bribes.

Appeals against the verdict by the Hsinchu District Court were still possible.

During the campaign for his re-election last year, Kuomintang incumbent Chiu reportedly made a speech hinting that one of his rivals, former KMT county magistrate Cheng Yung-chin, took bribes on construction contracts.

Cheng sued him under the Election and Recall Act for trying to make him lose the election, and won the first round of his legal case Friday.

The judges listened to a tape recording of Chiu’s speech, reports said. The incumbent county magistrate’s attorney argued that he had used the term “commission,” which was not as serious an allegation. The attorney also said that Chiu never mentioned anybody by name.      [FULL  STORY]