President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday applauded prosecutors and police for capturing two suspects alleged to have planted explosive devices on a high-speed rail train and outside a lawmaker’s office, and said he expected the police to be increasingly vigilant to ensure public safety.
“The bombings in Boston show that criminals are resorting to increasingly cruel measures, and the police must be more careful and cautious in handling different crimes,” Ma said in a post on his Facebook page.
The two prime suspects in the case, Hu Tsung-hsien (胡宗賢) and Chu Ya-tong (朱亞東), are alleged to have placed suitcases containing explosive devices on northbound high-speed rail train No. 616 and outside Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Chia-chen’s (盧嘉辰) office in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Tucheng District (土城) on Friday last week before boarding a plane to China.
The pair were detained in Zhuhai, in China’s Guangdong Province, and repatriated to Taiwan on Tuesday.
Ma visited the National Police Agency on Thursday to present awards to police who tracked down the suspects.
He yesterday applauded the police for cracking the case within four days, and praised the contribution of the Agreement on Joint Cross-Strait Crime-Fighting and Mutual Judicial Assistance in 2009 to solving the case.
“The assistance from the Ministry of Public Security in China also helped us crack the case very fast. I want to express my appreciation for their help,” Ma said.
Police should step-up security measures and pay greater attention to safety in public spaces, Ma added.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we