Lawyers representing the NET Fashion Development Co (主富服裝) filed a case against Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) on Friday last week accusing him of larceny, damage to private property and other charges in a dispute over a business agreement for the Keelung E-Square Mall (基隆東岸商場).
NET Co lawyer Chen Yi-wen (陳義文) said that under Hsieh’s orders, city officials accompanied by more than 40 police officers in the early morning hours of Thursday entered the NET Co store at the mall, hauled away equipment and furniture and evicted NET Co from the pemises, illegally “handing over” the space to the Breeze Group (微風集團).
Chen said that NET Co still retains rights for the mall’s commercial operation under the signed operate-and-transfer (OT) agreement. He accused the Keelung City Government of illegal conduct, to force the handover despite not having the “commercial property operating right.”
Photo: Lin Chia-tung, Taipei Times
Chen accused Hsieh of being dishonest, covering up talks with other companies to manage the E-Square Mall, despite “our agreement not being up till 2025.” Chen said the eviction was illegal, and filed the lawsuit for public prosecutors to investigate.
“The police entered and removed the security system, office equipment and furniture, before changing the locks and handing the key to the Breeze Group, who now have access to our office,” Chen said, adding that such actions amount to illegal breaking and entering, larceny and damage to private property.
statement
The Keelung City Government said in a release that it “still retains the mall’s property ownership, therefore it was a legal action and not ‘breaking and entering into private property.’”
“We had posted a notice of eviction, and after the deadline, we exercised our legal authority to take back the property for handing over to the Breeze Group as the new operator of the mall,” it added.
Local media reported last month that Breeze Group had reached a renovate, operate and transfer (ROT) agreement with Keelung City Government, valid 20 years, in a deal reportedly valued at NT$300 million (US$9.6 million).
The media reports said that the E-Square Mall was being handed over to the Breeze Group to overhaul and renovate the mall complex, “to create a more upmarket shopping destination in the port city.”
Additional reporting by Lu Hsien-hsiu, with CNA
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