Sat, Feb 08, 2014
Retired officer’s appeal of bribery sentence rejected
AFP, TAIPEI
The Supreme Court said yesterday it had rejected an appeal for a retired lieutenant-general serving a lengthy prison sentence in a high-profile bribery scandal.
The court said it was upholding its sentencing of 10 years and four months for Yuan Hsiao-lung (袁肖龍), the former deputy chief of the logistics command, on convictions of bribery, blackmail and leaking secrets.
Yuan was first convicted by a district court in April, 2009.
The Control Yuan impeached Yuan and 11 businesspeople on charges of bribery and blackmail and indicted them in June 2009.
In a final ruling, the court rejected an appeal filed by prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) on the grounds that the sentence was too heavy given that Yuan had confessed and that he did not make any illegal financial gains.
He was found guilty of seeking promotion by bribing his superiors with the help of a middleman, businessman Lin Chih-chung (林治崇).
Lin had promised to pay NT$6 million (US$200,000) to Yuan to persuade his superiors to promote him to the rank of general in exchange for information on military contract bidding in 2006.
However, Lin never actually paid the money and Yuan was not promoted before he retired in 2008.
Lin was found to have won several military contracts with Yuan’s help, who leaked information on tenders.
The case revived rumors that some military officers were promoted to the rank of general through bribery during the 2000 to 2008 rule of then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
