The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday denounced a report alleging that former first lady Tseng Wen-hui (
"It's impossible for her to possess three passports at the same time. This allegation is totally wrong," Chan Hsien-ching (詹憲卿), director-general of the ministry's Bureau of Consular Affairs, told the Taipei Times.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday began an investigative hearing into a slander case being contested by Tseng and three New Party members.
In April, Tseng filed an appeal at the Taiwan High Court following a slander case against former New Party legislators Elmer Feng (
The three New Party members filed a lawsuit against Tseng after the 2000 presidential election, accusing her of "trying to flee to New York with US$85 million in cash stuffed into 54 suitcases."
At the original trial, Tseng said she had only one valid passport at the time she was alleged to have tried to fly to New York.
The court asked the bureau for details of all passports Tseng had held.
A report in a Chinese-language newspaper said the court had a written document from the foreign ministry that said Tseng, at the time of the presidential election, held three passports.
Two standard passports were issued on June 21, 1994 and Jan. 4, 1995, the report said. She also possessed a diplomatic passport, which was issued on June 22, 1996, it said.
But according to the bureau files, "She has had four passports in the past. But she hasn't held them concurrently," Chan said.
"According to passport regulations, once a citizen applies for a new passport for whatever reason, one corner on the old one would be cut, rendering it null and void even if its expiry date had not passed," Chan said.
A foreign ministry press release also denied the newspaper report.
The Taiwan High Court is still considering both sides' appeals.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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