10 KMT defendants get suspended sentences for recall petition forgery

Taipei, Dec. 19 (CNA) Ten people affiliated with the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) received suspended sentences of 10 to 22 months from the Chiayi District Court on Friday for forging signatures in a drive to recall a ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker.

Those sentenced included KMT Chiayi County branch Secretary-General Yang Fu-cheng (楊富程), who received a 22-month jail term suspended for five years, and the branch's deputy chief, Kuo Shu-chiang (國恕強), who was given a 16-month sentence suspended for four years.

Yang and Kuo were also ordered by the court to pay NT$600,000 (NT$19,020) and NT$400,000, respectively, to the public treasury.

The eight others -- Lai Chu-huang (賴珠煌), Lee Chun-chang (李俊昌), Chuang Mei-ling (莊美玲), Wang Li-chuan (王瓈娟), Wu Tzu-yin (吳紫茵), Ho Po-lun (何博倫), Chiang Chiu-tien (江秋田) and Lin Cheng-lu (林正祿) -- received suspended sentences of 10 to 20 months.

Some were also ordered to pay fines to the public treasury and perform community service.

In explaining the suspended sentences, the court said all 10 individuals, including Yang, had no prior criminal records and had admitted to the offenses.

They were also aware of the consequences of their actions and unlikely to commit further offenses, the court said.

The case dates back to June 5, when prosecutors raided the KMT's Chiayi County branch following allegations of faking signatures to recall DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷).

To get a recall initiative to a popular vote, those initiating the campaign need to gather a certain number of signatures from the general public to move it forward.

According to prosecutors, workers and volunteers at the KMT Chiayi County branch took it into their own hands to create the needed signatures.

The party branch held a meeting of core members on Jan. 24 and distributed around 300 blank recall petitions for them to fill out so that they could meet the required threshold of 2,204 signatures, prosecutors alleged in the indictment.

Between Feb. 3 and 8, the suspects also asked friends to fill out petitions using the personal details of KMT members without their consent, forging signatures to push the total to 2,639, prosecutors alleged.

Among the petitions, 39 were in the names of deceased individuals, and 511 contained incorrect names, addresses or ID numbers, according to prosecutors, leading them to indict the 10 individuals in August on charges of forgery and violations of the Personal Data Protection Act.

The KMT unsuccessfully tried to mount recall campaigns against DPP lawmakers after the DPP and civic groups pushed for recalls of KMT legislators, getting 31 of them to a popular vote.

All of the KMT lawmakers survived their recall votes.