A magistrate in Taiwan has been charged with embezzling funds meant for victims of last year's killer earthquake.
Nantou County Magistrate Pang Pai-hsien was detained in custody Tuesday after being grilled overnight by a prosecutor. He denies the charges.
Chief prosecutor Hsu Sung-kui said he suspected Peng, a respected parliamentarian before his election to his current post in 1997, had embezzled some of the money donated to the county, which felt the full force of the strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in a century.
A total of 2,494 people were killed and 100,000 left temporarily homeless across Taiwan. In Nantou alone, 922 people were killed and 57,000 housing units were damaged or destroyed.
The alleged graft case surfaced when the prosecutor raided Pang's residence and his office Monday and sezied documents and computer discs.
Pang's deputy Lai Ying-fang, while saying he would respect the legal procedure, said he suspected the raid had been politically motivated.
"We were regretful about the involvement of political force," he said, without giving further details.
Pang is a former member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), with which President Chen Shui-bian is affiliated. He quit the party after failing to secure the nomination to stand for his current post and went on to beat the DPP candidate in the election.
He further enraged his old colleagues by publicly backing Chen's main rival in the March presidential vote, Lien Chan of the former ruling party, the Kuomintang.
But Justice Minister Chen Ting-nan, dubbed "Mr. Clean" for his efforts to crack down on corruption in public life, denied Pang was the victim of a witch-hunt, saying other officials from other parties had also been indicted in other cases. TAIPEI, Nov 13 (AFP)
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