Kaohsiung City councilor missing amid corruption probe

Taipei/Kaohsiung, Sept. 26 (CNA) A Kaohsiung City councilor who is the target of an anti-corruption probe over alleged embezzlement of public funds is apparently missing Thursday evening after investigators searched his residence and office earlier in the day.

Prosecutors in Kaohsiung have called on Huang Shao-ting (黃紹庭) of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) to cooperate with their investigation after he failed to appear to explain himself and turned off his mobile phone.

Huang, 54, did not attend the Kaohsiung City council meeting on Thursday either.

The missing city councilor in the southern Taiwanese city is under investigation for allegedly inflating the fees of publicly-funded assistants working in his constituency office, a criminal offense that can lead to a prison sentence.

Investigators from the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office searched Huang's residence and his office in Lingya District on Thursday morning, seizing computers and documents as evidence.

Huang's mother was also taken in for questioning.

The KMT's Kaohsiung branch said that they "respect the work of the prosecution unit's investigation."

"We appeal to others not to over-interpret the case and wait for the results of the judicial investigation," the KMT said. "We hope that the judicial authorities will not treat the innocent unjustly or let off the guilty too lightly."