The acrimonious fight over the election-eve shooting of the president and vice president again reared its head yesterday, as family members of the man police said was behind the shooting retracted their previous statements, claiming police intimidation.
After a lengthy investigation, Chen Yi-hsiung (
The family of Chen had previously said he carried out the shooting because he was depressed about being unemployed and blamed the president's policies.
PHOTO: LU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
They now say they were coerced into making these claims.
"We had no choice but to say what the police wanted us to say when we were questioned again and again, until they were satisfied with our answers," the family said in a statement, asking the police to make public the interrogation records.
Different story
About a year ago, Chen's wife Lee Shu-chiang (
Yesterday, however, Lee and three of her children denied their previous claims in a press conference in the legislature, saying that Chen was not the shooter, that he was falsely accused and that he had been murdered.
Police and prosecutors scoffed at what the family claimed was new evidence.
"It is not new at all," Lin Teh-hua (
"We have 11 witnesses who identified the man in the photo as Chen Yi-hsiung," he said.
Lee said that she was asked by Hou You-yi (
"Hou said that I would have to accept the consequences if I didn't say [what they wanted]. In order to protect my children, I read what they wanted me to read and apologized," Lee said.
Rebuttal
Later in the day, Hou, who is now the director-general of the National Police Agency, held a press conference to rebut the accusation.
"All the evidence we used to establish Chen's guilt was obtained from the investigation. We didn't fake anything and we didn't force any confessions," Hou said.
Hou said that he could understand why Chen's family might have had a hard time accepting that Chen was the shooter.
On March 7 last year, Chen was identified after the police traced people who had made purchases from an arms maker. They narrowed down their search to a bald man in a yellow jacket, who was taped standing in the "hot zone" at the crime scene.
The Supreme Prosecutors Office then announced on Aug. 17 that the investigation of the 319 shooting was closed. They concluded that Chen, whom the prosecutors believe committed suicide, was entirely responsible for the shooting.
However, opposition parties have highlighted some aspects of the case -- such as the weapon not being found, Chen's body being found in a fishing net and the family's claim to having destroyed a suicide note -- to cast doubt on Chen's guilt.
"The `yellow coated bald guy' was not my father," Chen's daughter said.
She added, "[The police] told me that I would be sentenced to seven years in prison if I didn't make the confession [they wanted]."
No new evidence
Still, the Tainan Prosecutors' Office said it was unlikely to reopen the case without new evidence.
Lin said he suspected political motives were behind the family's move, which coincided with an opposition rally and came a week before the anniversary of the shooting.
"We hope the Chen family was not used by some people with ulterior motives," he said.
Meanwhile, former TSU lawmaker -- now a member of the KMT -- Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴) accused the police of faking the videotape of the shooter. He displayed another photo to back his argument.
"Although there was a time lag of 17 seconds between the two photos, it is unreasonable that the crime scene of the videotape contained just a few people, while the photo I had was jam-packed with people," Su said.
Vice President Annette Lu (
also see story:
Pan-blue big guns attend KMT rally
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS