Taipei, July 19 (CNA) Former Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Lin Hsi-shan (林錫山) was jailed Friday when he began serving a 36-year sentence for receiving bribes, holding assets of unknown origin and other offenses.

Lin was indicted in 2016 for irregularities in the procurement of computers for the Legislature during his tenure as Legislature secretary-general.

He was accused by prosecutors of being involved in a scheme to help a company secure contracts to supply computers to the Legislature.

From 2011 to 2015, Farnet Technologies Co. won 33 contacts to supply the Legislature with computers and was often the sole bidder for those contracts, prosecutors said during their investigation in 2016.

In May 2017, Lin was sentenced by a district court to 16 years in prison for accepting kickbacks and other offenses and stripped of his civil rights for six years.

In March 2018, the Taiwan High Court ruled that Lin's punishment be reduced, as the money he received should be considered bribes rather than kickbacks. In addition, Lin confessed to his crimes and had already handed over a portion of his illegal gains.

The court also ruled that Lin be stripped of his civil rights for five years.

Lin later appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, which then remanded the case back to the High Court for review.

The High Court ruled in its retrial last Thursday that Lin had committed 10 offenses, including receiving bribes, money laundering, and holding assets of unknown origin and sentenced him to 36 years.

On Friday, the former Legislative official reported to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office's Enforcement Section to begin his sentence.

Lin served as legislative secretary-general from February 1999 to Jan. 31, 2017, the day before the new Legislature was seated. Prior to that, he was a three-term Kuomintang legislator, representing Changhua from 1990-1999.

(By Lin Chang-shun and Ko Lin)
Enditem/AW