Kaohsiung City councilor detained in corruption probe

Kaohsiung, Sept. 30 (CNA) A court has approved a request by prosecutors to detain and hold incommunicado a Kaohsiung City councilor who left Taiwan last week while being investigated for corruption, before returning to face arrest on Sunday.

In a statement issued Monday afternoon, the Kaohsiung District Court said it had approved the request to detain City Councilor Huang Shao-ting (黃紹庭), a member of the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT), due to the risk that he could flee, collude or destroy evidence.

During questioning, Huang admitted that he had artificially inflated the salaries of publicly funded assistants working in his constituency office, the court said.

Huang also admitted to transferring the government subsidies he received for the salaries each month to a bank account controlled by his wife, whom he claimed used them to pay his office's water and electricity bills, the court said.

Specifically, the court said, Huang had admitted to forgery by a public official, a crime under the Criminal Code, and to fraudulently making others deliver property under the cover of legal authority, in violation of the Anti-Corruption Act.

Huang has denied other allegations, however, including that some of his assistants were registered in name only, and did not do any actual work for him, the court said.

In its statement, the district court said it considers Huang a flight risk due to the fact that his wife and children are long-term residents of the United States, while he is a former U.S. citizen with the experience, financial and social means to live abroad.

Huang also poses a risk of colluding and destroying evidence, on the grounds that several witnesses have yet to be questioned in the case and details about how he used the government subsidies are still being clarified, the court said.

Huang, 54, was arrested and taken in for questioning by prosecutors on Sunday afternoon after arriving at Kaohsiung International Airport at 2 p.m.

Huang's arrest came four days after investigators were unable to find him during a search of his residence and office in Lingya District Thursday.

It was later discovered that he had boarded a flight to Xiamen, China, at 7 a.m. that day.

In a statement issued Friday via the KMT's social media page, Huang denied having prior knowledge of the search. He claimed his trip had been scheduled beforehand, and was not an attempt to avoid the investigation.

During the search on Thursday, 17 people, including the councilor's parents and his office staff, were brought in by prosecutors for questioning. Six of them were later released after posting bail of between NT$20,000 (US$631) and NT$300,000.

A request by prosecutors to detain the assistant director of Huang's constituency office, surnamed Chou (周), was rejected by a Kaohsiung court, and as of Monday had not been appealed.