A former lawyer for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday testified that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) had attended at party at the Playboy Mansion when he was studying in the US.
Earlier this year, radio show host Clara Chou (周玉蔻) alleged that Lien lived a lavish lifestyle during his college years at Columbia University in New York, including attending at party at the Playboy Mansion.
Lien filed a slander suit against Chou in the Taipei District Court, asking for NT$5 million (US$166,000) in compensation and a public apology.
Song Yao-ming (宋耀明) was summoned to testify in court when Chou cited him as her source of information.
Song told the court that the KMT should not have encouraged Lien to enter politics.
“Between 1993 and 1994 Lien invited me to his apartment in the Trump Tower in New York, and he told me he went to the Playboy Mansion in California,” Song said.
“A few years ago I had a conversation with a senior journalist surnamed Tsai (蔡) and I told him that Lien and I were schoolmates at Columbia University’s law school between 1993 and 1994. I lived in an international house in Upper Manhattan, which cost about US$1,000 a month. I was shocked when I learned that Lien, who had just graduated from Fu Jen Catholic University, has a father who is a government official, but he could afford an apartment in Trump Tower,” Song said.
Song said Sean Lien, one of former vice president Lien Chan’s (連戰) sons, was absent from class for days. When Song later ran into him and asked him where he had been, Sean Lien told him he had been to the Playboy Mansion in California.
The court asked whether both sides would consider settling the case out of court. Sean Lien’s lawyer said he would discuss it with his client.
Song had represented Ma when he was charged with misusing his special mayoral allowance.
Sean Lien spokesman Chien Chen-yu (錢震宇) said the younger Lien is not familiar with Song and that he never attended a party at the Playboy Mansion.
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