A chief suspect in the 1996 murder of former Taoyuan County commissioner Liu Pang-you (
Yang Shih-kang (
Police said Yang's escape appeared to be well-planned, and suspected that information had been leaked to Yang's accomplices about the investigation schedule yesterday.
Yang, who has a heavy criminal record, reportedly escaped to Cambodia after a police investigation linked him to the murder of Taoyuan County commissioner Liu Pang-you.
Yang was arrested in July, however, after he snuck back into Taiwan with a heavy cache of weapons and ammunitions. The weapons included an Uzi submachine gun and a shotgun.
Since then, Yang has helped police find two more guns he had hidden in various places around Taoyuan. Yesterday, police were taking him to Yangmei township to find another Chinese AK-47 rifle he claimed to have hidden there.
Police immediately launched a search operation after Yang's escape, but found no trace of him. Police say they are concerned that he may flee the country again with the help of illegal smuggling rings, or possibly commit even more crimes with the heavy arsenal apparently at his disposal.
Liu and eight other people, including two county councilors, were shot execution-style in his house in Taoyuan on Nov. 24, 1996. A number of suspects have been detained since the slaying, but the case remains unsolved to this day, causing embarrassment for investigators.
Since the murder, allegations have surfaced regarding Liu's dealings with local businessmen involving both real estate and entertainment developments, and some have suggested that his killing may have been the result of a dispute with one of them over money.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
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