Taiwan Today

Former Kuomintang Legislator Lee Ching-an was sentenced Feb. 4 to two years in prison by the Taipei District Court after being convicted on four counts of fraud related to her possession of dual citizenship while holding public office. According to Taiwan law, elected politicians must relinquish any foreign citizenship they hold before being sworn into office. Prosecutors said that Lee obtained U.S. citizenship in 1991 and held it during her term as a Taipei city councilor beginning in 1994 and her four terms as a legislator starting in 1999. As such, they argued that she had fraudulently obtained a salary for the positions that she was not eligible to hold. The court determined that because Lee’s elections to the city council and Legislative Yuan were not valid from the outset because of her possession of U.S. citizenship, her case did not involve corruption. The Taipei City Council and Legislative Yuan will have to file civil suits to force Lee to repay the salary she received, which amounted to about NT$22.68 million (US$708,307) for her time as a councilor and roughly NT$80.09 million while serving her first three terms as a legislator. The court said in its ruling that Lee had deceived the citizens over a long period of time and had not acted sincerely after her crime was exposed. The judges stated in their ruling that they took into consideration Lee’s attitude toward her crime and the harm done to the nation in deciding to mete out a two-year prison sentence. Lee issued a statement afterwards expressing regret at the ruling, stressing that she never had the intention of fraudulently obtaining a salary as a councilor or legislator. Lee said that she would appeal the ruling. (SB)