The New Taipei City District Court has sentenced a man to five months in jail for allegedly putting rat poison in a water storage tank over a disagreement with a tenant, causing illness and skin rashes to a family.
The man, surnamed Hung (洪), can pay a fine in lieu of jail time, the court said.
The incident took place in August 2020, when building resident Yang (楊) and his family experienced swelling, red skin, rashes and other conditions, the ruling said.
Photo: Taipei Times file
The family also said that the water had an odd smell and found green-blue particles floating inside their water storage tank, it said.
Yang reported the incident to police, and lab testing found that the particles contained the ingredients of rat poison.
About a week later, Hung attempted to poison the water again, but was unable to due to a lock, the ruling said.
Yang’s wife saw Hung on the camera feed and ran to the roof to confront him, and caught him pouring the contents of a plastic bottle over the side of the building, it said.
Police gathered some of the discarded contents, which lab tests confirmed to contain the components of rat poison, it said.
At a hearing, Hung said he had poisoned the tank over a personal dispute with Yang, who had served as the chairman of the building’s management committee.
Hung said he had disagreements and filed complaints over the use of public space in the building, and tried to resolve the problems with Yang, but did not get the results he wanted.
He said he also resented that Yang “monopolized” the chairman position for more than two decades.
Hung said that he had put “fertilizer materials” into the tank to “teach a lesson” to Yang.
The court found Hung guilty of “causing injury to others,” based on surveillance camera footage, eyewitness testimony, police statements and firsthand accounts from police.
The court rejected prosecutors’ charge of “placing poisonous or harmful substances in water for public use,” which carried a more severe punishment, as the tank was privately owned and not a communal water source for the whole building, the ruling said.
Yang’s daughter-in-law said that the sentence was too lenient and the family would consider appealing the ruling.
“The incident made all six members of our family sick. We still suffer from the fear that the water tank could be contaminated by rat poison,” she said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS