Taipei: A former Taiwanese prosecutor was sentenced on Friday to 12 years in prison on corruption charges for taking bribes to cover up gambling businesses, a court said.
Chen Yu-chen, formally a member of the High Prosecutors` Office, was found guilty of accepting nearly Tw$24 million ($800,000) from an operator of video gaming and gambling businesses near Taipei city from late 1999 to 2006, said the Taipei district court.
Chen was convicted of taking money from businessman Shih Yung-hua in return for dropping charges against him, and for pressuring other prosecutors to stop investigating him, the court said in a statement. She can appeal the ruling.
Chen became the first female prosecutor to be charged with corruption last year in a case that the authorities have described as "gravely damaging the reputation of prosecutors and dealing a deep blow to the public confidence in the judiciary".
The case came to light after Shih alerted the authorities, and he was exempted from prison for turning himself in, the court said.
Taiwan has been rocked by a string of high-profile corruption cases involving top officials in recent years, including ex-president Chen Shui-bian, who is currently serving a 20-year jail term on multiple graft convictions.
The government in 2010 set up a new watchdog to fight corruption in the wake of a bribery scandal implicating three senior judges and a prosecutor that saw the then judicial chief quit amid a public outcry.
