By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
A trio of senior Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians yesterday launched an appeal for former DPP secretary-general Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁), who was scheduled to begin his nine-month prison term on Monday in a breach of trust case, calling the verdict an “apparent mistrial.”
Wu was accused of giving in, as Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar) chairman in 2003, to former DPP legislator Hong Chi-chang’s (洪奇昌) lobbying for Chun Lung Co, a property developer, to ensure that it won the right to purchase a plot of land in Greater Taichung’s Wufeng District (霧峰) that it was renting from Taisugar.
The court ruled that Wu, Hong and Liu Po-cheng (劉柏誠), the former director of Taisugar’s Department of Property Management, had violated Taisugar’s “rent only” policy on its properties and the sale had caused Taisugar losses.
It handed down prison terms of between two years and four months and three years and 10 months for the trio in February last year.
After a retrial, the High Court’s Greater Taichung branch found Hong innocent and reduced Wu’s sentence to nine months and Liu’s to seven months in its verdict on March 26.
Hong, former Tainan County commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) of the DPP, who is now a practicing lawyer, and former DPP legislator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) told a press conference that the trial process had been flawed.
The court reduced the defendants’ prison terms in the retrial based on the conclusion that the appraisal process was legal, the plot of land was not undervalued and neither Wu nor Liu received bribes, Su said.
It is difficult to explain why Wu had been found guilty, while his successor Kong Jaw-sheng (龔照勝), who had approved the sale of the land, was not, Su said.
With regards to Liu, who was rehired as a consultant after a 40-year career at Taisugar between 1963 and 2003, Su said that if Liu was guilty, Taisugar’s officials of higher positions — board of director members, general manager and five deputy general managers — should also have been held accountable.
“This is an apparently unjust verdict. I am still sure that my integrity can stand the test of time because I’ve done nothing wrong,” said Liu, 75.
The verdict has “violated people’s common sense” because of its different standards for different people, Lin said.
Lin added that if Kong did not challenge Wu’s decision on the sales, Kong had also violated the laws.
According to Hong, who filed the request for a retrial, Wu was “so disappointed at the judicial system in Taiwan that he has never said a word about the verdict” and he was ready to serve his prison term without challenging the court.