Notorious kidnappers Hsueh Chiu (薛球) and Chen Yi-hua (陳益華) were indicted on charges of extortion yesterday and a prosecutor suggested a two-year-and-six-month sentence for each man.
In addition to Hsueh and Chen, Chiayi prosecutor Wang Hui-hsin (王輝興) also indicted another four suspects who worked with Hsueh and Chen during some of their crimes.
The four accomplices are Chen Juei-fang (陳瑞芳), Kuo Hsi-jung (郭錫榮), Tsai Kuei-ker (蔡貴客) and Liao Chien-hsin (廖建信). Wang suggested the same sentence for Chen, Kuo and Tsai but did not suggest a sentence for Liao.
Hsueh and Chen Yi-hua are currently being detained. Chen Juei-fang and Kuo were both released on NT$500,000 bail yesterday and Tsai was released on NT$200,000 bail on Nov. 25. Liao was interrogated on Oct. 20 and later released.
"In the crime ring, Liao's role is the least important and he has been quite cooperative since our investigation began. As a result, we did not detain him or suggest any sentence for him," Wang said in an indictment.
According to the prosecutor, Hsueh and Chen Yi-hua met the rest of the four while fleeing to China in 2000.
Hsueh and Chen Yi-hua's indictment, follows a string of shootings and kidnappings, giving them a reputation as notorious bandits. But the pair has never been involved in a murder, according to police.
Most recently they have been linked to the kidnapping of the three sons and a brother-in-law of a wealthy Chiayi businessman in March last year, as well as the kidnapping of Taichung City Council Speaker Chang Hung-nien (張宏年), who was then-vice speaker, in 2002.
Hsueh and Chen Yi-hua released the hostages in the Chiayi case after a ransom to the tune of NT$4.8 million was paid. Chang was released when his family handed over an undisclosed sum, rumored to be in the neighborhood of NT$300 million.
Later, a dispute erupted between prosecutors and judges after Hsueh and Chen Yi-hua were arrested by Miaoli police on March 21, 2000, but were released the same day by the Miaoli District Court on bail of NT$200,000 and NT$300,000, respectively.
Hsueh and Chen Yi-hua have been on the run ever since until they were nabbed by Chinese police and escorted back to Taiwan in August.
In the six-man crime ring, Kuo proposed the idea of blackmailing Yang Teng-kuei (
Their plan was to record a threatening statement made by Hsueh and Chen Yi-hua on two VCDs and then mail them separately to both Yangs. The VCD to Yang Kuang-you was never made public but the one sent to Yang Teng-kuei was shown by the police few days after it was received.
In the VCD, Chen Yi-hua told Yang Teng-kuei that they needed NT$50 million or he would have to "do something." Chen Yi-hua and Hsueh had allegedly signed a note, along with their fingerprints, and mailed it with the VCD.
In the footage, in addition to making the threatening "statement," Chen Yi-hua and Hsueh sat on a sofa and played with pistols and bullets.
On July 3, Chen Juei-fang and Tsai brought the two VCDs and the notes -- signed by Chen Yi-hua and Hsueh -- back to Taiwan and mailed them from Sanchung City, Taipei County, after which time the police were notified.
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
RSS