A man penalized for breaching COVID-19 quarantine regulations has had his fine revoked after it emerged that he had been kidnapped by debt collectors.
The man, surnamed Chen (陳), returned from Hong Kong in late October last year and began his 14 days of mandatory home quarantine at a friend’s home in Nantou County.
However, the following day, men identified as debt collectors arrived at the home and reportedly mistook Chen for his friend, who owed them money.
The men assaulted Chen, abducted him and took him to his own home to collect the money owed, the Ministry of Justice said last week.
He was then returned to the residence where he had been in quarantine.
It was not clear how police were alerted that he had left, but the government’s quarantine system includes electronic monitoring through cellphone signals.
Chen was arrested and fined NT$100,000 for breaching the regulations.
Chen’s explanation was investigated and confirmed, the ministry said, adding that his fine was revoked because he was forced to leave quarantine against his will.
“The breach of the quarantine regulations was not caused by his own intentional or negligent behavior,” said Hu Tian-ci (胡天賜), a spokesman for the ministry’s Changhua branch. “According to the law, such behavior should not be punished and should be referred to the health unit for withdrawal.”
It is the first time that a government fine for a quarantine breach has been reversed.
The maximum fine for breaching the regulations is NT$300,000.
It was imposed last month on a pilot who flew between Taiwan and the US, but traveled around Taipei while infectious, leading to the first locally transmitted case in more than 250 days.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS