Six people involved in clashes related to a Chinese music festival last year were sentenced to between 20 days in detention and jail terms of five months, all of which could be commuted to fines, the Taipei District Court said yesterday.
The six men included Chang Wei (張瑋), son of Chinese Unity Promotion Party (CUPP) founder Chang An-le (張安樂) — a former gang leader also known as the “White Wolf.”
Chang Wei was given 40 days in detention on charges of attacking and injuring several students who protested the holding of the “Sing! China: Shanghai-Taipei Music Festival” at the athletics field of National Taiwan University on Sept. 24 last year, the court said.
Lee Po-chang (李柏璋), a staunch pro-Taiwan independence advocate, received the same punishment as Chang for attacking and causing facial injuries to a CUPP member surnamed Yang (楊), who was attending the festival.
Lee was also accused by prosecutors of breaking Yang’s glasses during a scuffle between pro-unification and pro-independence crowds, after the festival was canceled due to the protest.
Hu Ta-kang (胡大剛), who assaulted a student that he thought was trying to help Lee, was sentenced to five months in jail for hitting the student with an extendable baton and to 20 days in detention on charges of intimidation for shouting at Lee’s girlfriend.
Three other individuals were sentenced to detentions ranging from 40 to 70 days, the court said, adding that the verdicts can be appealed.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
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
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash