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.
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