Five jailed in Taiwan sex scandal

Chu Mei-feng was secretly filmed [Photo by Henry Tan]

A court in Taiwan has convicted five people for their roles in a scandal in which a former politician was secretly filmed having sex with a married man.

She was the most trusted friend of Chu, but Kuo astonishingly spied on Chu and released the footage of her private life to the public

Liu Shou-song, court official

It is the latest twist in a scandal involving the politician Chu Mei-feng that broke late last year and gripped Taiwan, after a tabloid magazine distributed video CDs showing the 40-minute romp.

The Taipei District Court sentenced Ms Chu's estranged friend Kuo Yu-ling, who installed the hidden camera, to four years and eight months in prison for illegally profiting from the distribution of the video.

The publisher of the tabloid magazine Scoop, Shen Jung, was jailed for two years and six months for distributing the video CDs.

I am nobody. I feel helpless

Kuo Yu-ling

His assistant, Wei An, and two Scoop reporters were also handed down sentences ranging from six to 26 months.

'Jealousy'

Court official Liu Shou-song told reporters that Kuo caused tremendous damage to the victim by installing pinhole cameras in Ms Chu's apartment, car and office.

The sex video was quickly taken off the shelves

"She was the most trusted friend of Chu, but Kuo astonishingly spied on Chu and released the footage of her private life to the public," he said.

He also said Kuo was jealous of Ms Chu, a television reporter-turned-politician popular in the Chinese-speaking world.

But Kuo - who sold the video to pay for her daughter's education abroad - said she would appeal the verdict.

"I am nobody. I feel helpless," she said, tears streaming down her face.

'Notoriously popular'

The government quickly seized the video CDs after they were distributed in December last year, but pirated copies circulated widely, reportedly going on sale in Malaysia, Singapore and China.

Ms Chu, a former Taipei city councillor, has since detailed her former relationships in a book and launched a singing career.

She has recently performed concerts to sell-out crowds in Singapore and Hong Kong.

However, she was banned from performing in Malaysia, where the authorities said she was a bad role model for young people.