The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) on Monday revealed its role in the investigation and extradition from Palau last week of an Australian academic accused of repeatedly conspiring to murder her ex-husband.
Lisa Lines, 43, a former history professor, is accused of plotting in 2017 to have her then-lover Zacharia Bruckner, 36, kill her ex-husband, Jonathon Hawtin, also 36.
According to Australian media reports, in October 2017, Hawtin was paralyzed from the neck down after being struck repeatedly with a hatchet, while Bruckner was shot in the abdomen.
Photo: CNA
As police had assumed that Bruckner, who was lodging with the couple at the time, had been acting in self-defense, Hawtin was charged with attempted murder. He was eventually acquitted.
During the trial, the court was told that Lines had convinced a woman she was dating to smother Hawkins to death in the hospital where he was recovering, but the plan fell through after the woman was confronted by hospital security.
In 2020, Australian police reopened an investigation into Lines and issued an arrest warrant. Later that year, she took her two children to Taiwan, which does not have an extradition treaty with Australia.
From December 2021 to August last year, Lines allegedly conspired online with Bruckner, formulating a plan to kill Hawtin and his mother by hiring a hit man, the reports said.
The bureau told a news conference on Monday that Lines had legally entered Taiwan on a work visa with her two children in February 2020.
During her time in Taiwan, Lines lived in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) and worked at an investment consulting firm in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), said Yang Sung-kuo (楊國松), head of the bureau’s International Criminal Affairs Division.
After Australia reopened its investigation of Lines, Australian police contacted the bureau to ask for help investigating a dispute over the custody of her two children, Yang said.
Due to the complexity of the case, the bureau asked Australia to first provide it with evidence, he said.
In September last year, Interpol issued a red notice for Lines and a yellow missing persons notice for her two children, Yang said.
Because Taiwan is not a member of Interpol, the bureau was only informed of the notices by Australian authorities in April, he said.
Last month, after receiving an official request from the Australian Federal Police and South Australia Police, the bureau formally launched an investigation into Lines, he said.
Investigators found that Lines, whose visa was set to expire tomorrow, had tried to obtain an extension at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but was rejected, Yang said, without explaining why.
On Nov. 15, Lines and her two children boarded a plane for Palau, likely to apply to renew her Taiwan work visa from there, he said.
As Palau has an extradition treaty with Australia and Taiwan does not, the bureau informed authorities in Palau, who arrested Lines at the airport, Yang said, adding that Australian police arrested Bruckner in Brisbane the same day.
As Lines went through extradition proceedings, the bureau sent personnel to accompany her children on a flight back to Australia, he said.
On Wednesday last week, the three countries arranged to have Lines extradited to Australia flying via Taiwan, Yang said.
Taipei prosecutors have searcehd Lines’ apartment in New Taipei City and workplace in Taipei to collect evidence for the Australian authorities, Yang said.
Lines was on Monday denied bail during an initial court appearance in South Australia, where she faces trial for attempting to arrange Hawtin’s murder, The Associated Press reported.
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