A Hong Kong man who allegedly hired private investigators to follow and photograph Hong Kong activists visiting Taiwan was deported yesterday after his residency permit was revoked by the National Immigration Agency (NIA).
Lee Pun-ho (李彬豪) had violated the terms of his residency permit and was therefore deported, the agency said in a statement posted on its Web site, without elaborating on the specifics of his case.
Lee has been barred from re-entering the nation for a certain period, it said, without saying how long the ban would be in place.
Lee first came to Taiwan in 2015 to study psychology at Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei City and last year began working for a local company.
He told the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office that he had been asked by a private investigation firm in Hong Kong to hire a local firm to follow three pro-independence advocates from Hong Kong during their visit to Taiwan in January last year, including former Student Localism convener Tony Chung (鍾翰林).
During their visit, the trio met with a reporter surnamed Su (蘇) from the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) and Yang Yueh-ching (楊月清), the head of an anti-communism group in Taiwan.
Photographs of their meeting were published in two pro-Beijing newspapers in Hong Kong, the Wen Wei Po and the Ta Kung Po.
The newspapers described Su and Yang as “Taiwan independence activists” and “emissaries of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).”
Su and Yang pressed charges against Lee with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for “offenses against privacy,” and office investigators found that the people who trailed and photographed the trio were employed by Unity Credit Investigation Co.
Unity Credit’s chief executive told prosecutors that the Lee had hired the company for NT$20,000 a day.
The office on Thursday announced that it would not press charges against Lee or Unity Credit, as the photographs had been taken in public spaces and did not meet the standard for invasion of privacy.
However, Lee had taken part in “intelligence gathering” activities that did not match the stated purpose of his residence permit, the office added.
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