Police yesterday accused New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) and his Secretary-General Lee Sheng-feng (李勝峰) of pushing police at CKS International Airport last Tuesday.
"Evidence showed Yok grabbed a club away from police and pushed them. We also think he ordered gangsters to attack pan-green supporters," said Aviation Police Bureau Director Chen Tzi-chin (陳子敬) yesterday.
"They were accused of interfering with public functions," Chen said.
Lee said yesterday that he was merely keeping pan-green protesters at bay and protecting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) when he entered the airport.
"I don't feel sorry about my behavior in the clash. If the police say I've broken the law, I would say they are wrong," the party secretary-general said. He said the three black-clad youth who accompanied him to the airport were Lien supporters, not gangsters.
Yok had vowed to return "blood with blood," referring to a Lien supporter who was injured during the fight. The New Party chairman has since left the country.
Wang Lan (
Wang allegedly led gangsters in the clashes at the airport. Her ex-husband, Chu Chia-hsun (
Police yesterday arrested the three Bamboo Union members who accompanied Lee at the airport, including Tan Cheng-yu (
Phoenix Corps (
Police said their investigation showed the three unidentified black clad youth pushed police and attacked pan-green supporters. Police said the three are Bamboo Union gang members and all have criminal records.
Police said two other Bamboo Union members who were at the airport -- Kang Long-hui (康龍輝) and his younger brother Kang Liang-gi (康良吉) -- were released by prosecutors because they did not attack anyone. The Kang brothers wore clothes in Republic of China flag colors when they appeared at the airport.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56