The girlfriend of an Australian man who was sickened by rat poison has been ordered not to leave the country, Taipei prosecutors said yesterday, after reports that she told prosecutors she had prepared the poison for herself.
Australian Alex Shorey, 24, left Taiwan on Wednesday on a medical evacuation flight bound for Queensland, where he is continuing to receive treatment after ingesting the rat poison superwarfarin.
Authorities searched the residence of Shorey’s Taiwanese girlfriend on Wednesday as the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office opened an investigation into the case.
Photo: CNA
Also conducting investigations are the Taipei Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division and Xinyi Precinct, which interviewed people of interest in the case and reviewed Shorey’s medical records.
The girlfriend was on Thursday questioned and ordered not to leave the country, although she has not been arrested or charged, the office said yesterday.
The office declined to release the content of her statement, citing an active investigation.
However, Chinese-language media reported that she said she prepared the poison with the intent of taking her own life after quarreling with Shorey, who then accidentally ingested it instead.
Prosecutors said they are considering taking a statement remotely from Shorey after he recovers.
Both of Shorey’s parents were interviewed by authorities prior to their departure from Taiwan, they added.
The office also ruled out the possibility of food poisoning or illegal drugs as the cause of the poisoning.
The cause would be determined after further investigation, it added.
A probe into whether Shorey ingested the poison through contaminated drugs was launched in response to media reports on the topic and is being led by the office’s chief drug prosecutor, the office said in a statement on Thursday.
The investigation comes after the Chinese-language United Daily News published a letter on Monday by doctor Tao Hung-yang (陶宏洋) who said that Shorey’s condition might have been caused by contaminated synthetic marijuana products.
Shorey, a native of Toowoomba in southern Queensland, was a student in a Chinese-language program at New Taipei City’s Tamkang University from September last year to February.
In the middle of last month he was admitted to Taipei Medical University Hospital with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, nosebleeds, bloody urine and coagulation disorders.
Doctors determined that he had likely been poisoned by superwarfarin, an anticoagulant rodenticide, and after he experienced an allergic reaction to his initial treatment, doctors adjusted his medication and his condition began to stabilize.
This story has been amended since it was first published.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS