Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office yesterday released Wan Chung (萬眾), who has been regarded as the "godfather of Taiwan's underground banking business," and his secretary Chiang Neng-yu (江能宇) on bail.
Both Wan and Chiang were being held as suspects in the Dec. 9 kidnapping of renowned commercial lawyer Tu Jin-shu (涂錦樹).
The Kaohsiung District Court rejected Chief Prosecutor Lin Ching-tsung (林慶宗) and Prosecutor Hsiao Yu-cheng's (蕭宇誠) made the request to have Wan and Chiang detained, but it was ruled that each of them be released on NT$1 million bail each at approximately 12:30am yesterday. In addition, the court also handed down a restraining order banning Wan and Chiang from traveling outside the country.
Wan and Chiang were arrested by the police at Taipei's Sherwood Hotel on Friday afternoon after they tried to clear their names at a press conference.
The police said that Chiang arrived at Tu's Taipei office on Dec. 9 and asked him to meet Wan to "discuss business" at former KMT lawmaker Wang Shih-hsiung's (王世雄) Kaohsiung residence.
Tu was the owner of Tu and Amida Trust Law Firm (揭諦信託專業法律事務所) and believed to be the most distinguished commercial lawyer in Taiwan.
Tu alleged he was tortured by Wan and Chiang at Wang's home, after which Tu signed over 25 percent of the shares in his law firm and wrote a check to Wan for NT$50 million.
The abduction, according to Tu, lasted 12 hours.
According to the police, Wan and Chiang both denied the allegations. Wan told police that Tu actually owes him NT$50 million and they were merely discussing how Tu would clear the debts.
Wan also admitted that he slapped Tu on the face twice because Tu refused to come forth with any promises for repaying the debt.
However, Wan said that he did not extort the check or the shares of Tu's law firm from him.
Alan Liu (劉昌崙), Wan's defense counsel, said that he was not happy with the decision by prosecutors to detain his client.
"The entire case was simply about an argument over a financial problem between Tu and my client. We had explained it very clearly to the prosecutors during the interrogation.
It was not a kidnapping case. I do not understand why it was necessary for prosecutors to detain my client," said Liu.
The alleged kidnapping case was first made public on TV on Dec. 19. However, Tu, his law firm and the police did not want to confirm it until Saturday, when the police first held a press conference.
When the Taipei Times called Tu's law firm on Dec. 19, an employee of Tu's said, "Tu has not been kidnapped and he has not been to Kaohsiung recently."
On Friday, after learning that they had become suspects, Wan, Chiang and Wang held a press conference.
Wan and Chiang said they "invited" Tu under his own free will. In addition to echoing Wan and Chiang's remarks, Wang said that he was simply trying to help since both Wan and Tu are his friends.
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