DPP lawmaker Gao accepts being suspended six months

Gao said he respects and accepts the party ruling, but insists on his innocence concerning money matters.

The DPP took the disciplinary action after the Nantou District Court sentenced Gao to five years and six months in prison, in July, for taking a bribe of NT$500,000.

Also known as Lawrence Gao, the DPP legislator defined the money as a political contribution and has appealed his case with the Taiwan High Court in a move to clear his name.

The DPP's Ethics Committee ruled that Gao will not lose his status as a legislator-at-large representing the party in the Legislative Yuan, mainly because the district court did not present concrete and compelling evidence in the conviction.

But Gao's party membership and rights will be suspended for six months because he violated a party regulation that prohibits its legislators-at-large from accepting political contributions.

Gao's aide, Yao Shen-jih, was given a lighter sentence of two years and four months because he already made confessions to the court and surrendered the payment of NT$1.5 million from a group of businessmen.

Gao and Yao were charged with having lobbied with the Ministry of Finance for a construction company to purchase a government-owned land lot in Taichung City in 2007.

The two had allegedly won promise from the investors for paying a service fee of NT$10 million.

Gao thanked the party's trust in his innocence concerning bribery or scam, adding that his legal problems arose mainly from the court's failure in distinguishing a legislator's accepting political contributions for service provided to voters from accepting bribes and scams.

The DPP legislator, who started his political career as an aide to former President, Chen Shui-bian, already voluntarily resigned from a post in the party's legislative caucus following his verdict of guilt from the court in order to prepare his defense for a new trial at the high court.

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