The head of a Tainan temple and seven others were indicted on Friday by prosecutors investigating gun attacks on a campaign headquarters and a business run by a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) official in November last year.
Six of the people who were indicted — Kung Hsiang-chih (孔祥志), Yang Chan-hua (楊展華), Lee Chi-han (李奇漢), Kuo Chien-chang (郭建彰), Tsai Chin-lang (蔡金郎) and Hsieh Chun-cheng (謝俊誠) — were detained, while Wang Wen-tsung (王文宗), chairman of Cihji Temple in Tainan’s Syuejia District (學甲), was released on NT$700,000 bail, the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office said.
An eighth suspect — Hung Cheng-chun (洪政軍), who was extradited from China in February — is serving a nine-year prison sentence for a separate firearms offense.
Photo: Wang Chieh, Taipei Times
All eight had been indicted over their alleged involvement in twin attacks on the campaign headquarters of Hsieh Shu-fan (謝舒凡) and a business belonging to former DPP Central Executive Committee member Kuo Tsai-chin (郭再欽) in the run-up to last year’s local elections.
On Nov. 10 last year, police responding to a 3am report of exploding firecrackers arrived to find a steel shutter on Hsieh Shu-fan’s campaign headquarters in Syuejia riddled with about 30 bullet holes.
Surveillance footage recovered by police showed a man — who prosecutors identified as Kung — firing shots from a gun into Hsieh Shu-fan’s office before departing on a scooter.
The same person had shot up a technology firm run by Kuo Tsai-chin shortly before arriving at Hsieh Shu-fan’s campaign headquarters, prosecutors said.
Neither location was occupied at the time of the shootings and no injuries were reported.
Hsieh Shu-fan, a DPP candidate whose father is former independent Tainan city councilor Hsieh Tsai-wang (謝財旺), was elected to the Tainan City Council on Nov. 26.
Kung, a Syuejia resident with a criminal record, was tracked down in China and extradited to Taiwan in February along with Hung.
Prosecutors said that Wang and Hung, a close associate of the temple chairman, masterminded the shootings and recruited Kung to carry them out.
Wang and Hung have denied involvement in the shootings.
The five others indicted on Friday have been accused of managing other tasks, such as supplying the MP5 gun allegedly used in the attack and providing Kung with the scooter.
Hung and Kung, who prosecutors said were smuggled into China after fleeing Taiwan by boat in November last year, were arrested by Chinese police in Quanzhou on Jan. 18.
Prosecutors said that Wang subsidized Hung during the latter’s time in hiding, saying that the temple boss visited China in December last year and in January to meet with him.
The motives behind the shootings were still being investigated, prosecutors said, adding that there are other potential indictments in the case.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS