8 lawmakers sentenced in bribery case

They included six legislators who were acquitted in an earlier trial by the district court. The lawmakers said they will appeal the latest ruling from the Taiwan High Court.

The High Court said the convicted politicians will also have to repay the bribes from NT$300,000 to NT$10 million per person,

The eight were indicted by prosecutors for accepting money amounting to more than NT$30 million from members of associations representing the traditional Chinese medicine business community, when the Legislative Yuan was reviewing a medicine act in 1996.

The money was given to the selected lawmakers to win their support to revise the rules so as to allow suppliers of herbal and other Chinese medicines to give customers prescriptions.

But the move was strongly opposed by the Department of Health, which insisted only those who passed the national medical examinations are qualified to dispense prescriptions.

This was a rare criminal case to concern lawmakers accepting bribes to revise regulations.

In the previous trial by the district court, former lawmaker Chiu Chui-jen of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) received an eight-year jail term.

Liao Fu-peng, a former veteran lawmaker of the Kuomintang (KMT), was given a sentence of eight years and six months.

In the new trial at the High Court, the imprisonment for Chiu was extended to ten years, the heaviest sentence among the eight guilty legislators.

The panel of judges said Chiu received NT$10 million from the Chinese medicine association through a relative who was a member of the organization.

Chiu received the money in three batches during the period from 1997 to 1998 in the name of campaign donations, the court said.

The sentence for Liao remained unchanged at eight years and six months.

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