Yilan County chief sentenced to 12.5 years in corruption case

Taipei, Dec. 31 (CNA) Yilan County Magistrate Lin Zi-miao (林姿妙) on Tuesday was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison on corruption charges in a case stemming from a shady property deal.

In a verdict issued by the Yilan District Court, the 72-year-old Lin was found guilty and sentenced to a combined 12.5 years for seeking illegal gains through her supervisory role as a public official, money laundering and having unaccounted-for assets as a public official.

The court also ordered the seizure of NT$32.5 million from Lin which was inconsistent with her income and could not be accounted for.

Due to her conviction on corruption charges, Lin will be suspended as Yilan County magistrate, with her deputy, Lin Mao-sheng (林茂盛), filling the position on an acting basis.

Lin, a member of the Kuomintang (KMT), was indicted along with 14 others in 2022 over a scheme to waive NT$1.12 million (US$36,577) in land value increment tax for a plot of land in Luodong Township.

In return, the landowner provided land used for Lin's campaign headquarters in 2018 and the KMT's Yilan campaign headquarters ahead of the 2020 presidential election, prosecutors said.

During their investigation, prosecutors also found that Lin had NT$70 million in transactions in and out of her Farmer's Association bank account whose source she could not account for, the indictment said.

In a statement issued after the ruling, Lin maintained her innocence, accusing prosecutors of overplaying their hand and insisting that the transactions in her bank account were personal loans she had accepted and later repaid.

Lin said she was "pained" by the court's decision, which showed that "Taiwan's judiciary has been kidnapped by politics."

"Justice may have been delayed, but I'm confident it won't be absent," she said.

Later on Tuesday, the KMT vowed to "fully support" Lin as she appealed the verdict to "defend her innocence."

The Yilan District Prosecutors Office, which had sought a 20-year sentence for Lin, said it would make a decision on whether to appeal after reviewing the court's ruling.

Aside from Lin, the Yilan District Court also sentenced 13 other people implicated in the case to prison sentences ranging from four months to five years and ten months.