Former minister Yu given suspended term for corruption

The ex-official, Yu Chen-hsien, was given a five-year suspension of his imprisonment, plus 120 hours of community service.

According to the verdict, Yu leaked the names of the members on a committee responsible for screening bidders for the government's project to build the Nangag Exhibition Hall, which now stands in suburban Taipei City.

Yu was acting under Wu's instruction, and the leaked information enabled a construction company to bribe the project reviewers.

The district court also convicted seven members on the screening committee for accepting bribes from the company, giving them prison terms ranging from seven to eight years.

Wu's trial over the Nangang case, which is being prosecuted by another team of prosecutors, has yet to be concluded.

The Nangang project is one of four corruption cases for which former President Chen Shui-bian and his family have been indicted.

Yu, indicted and granted bail in December 2008 after spending more than a month in custody, confessed that Wu told him to pass the name list to the contractor. He claimed to have accepted no bribes.

The seven committee members were academics who taught civil engineering or architecture at leading universities in Taiwan.

They are Cheng Tsung-yung, Wang Lung-chang, Chiang Cheh-ming, Chou Chia-peng, Chen Po-ya, Kuo Yung-chieh and Wang Chen-ying.

Hung Chung-hsin, who is a friend of Yu's, was also convicted, but the court gave him a suspended prison term of 20 months.

The former president and his wife are appealing their life imprisonment. Chen has been detained since last December, while his wheelchair-bound wife has been given bail because of health reasons.

The family has had NT$500 million worth of their assets frozen by prosecutors.

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