The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office today indicted actor Lee Wei (李威) and 12 others for the death of a woman at a Buddhist retreat.
The 13 people are facing charges for causing bodily injuries leading to death, complicity in causing bodily injuries leading to death, and coercion.
A woman, surnamed Tsai (蔡), member of a religious group, was found dead in the group’s meeting place in July last year.
Photo: Taipei Times
Lee cooperated with prosecutors as a witness and provided testimony on other suspects, leading to prosecutors seeking to reduce or waive his sentence under the Witness Protection Act (證人保護法).
As per Article 14 of the act, prosecutors requested the court to reduce Lee’s sentence, as he provided key testimony and evidence of crimes committed by others indicted in the case.
In July last year, police received a report that a woman was lying motionless in a first-floor property on a residential block on Siwei Road in Taipei’s Daan District (大安).
When police officers arrived to the scene, they found Tsai with no signs of life and her body covered in bruises.
A subsequent autopsy determined she died of rhabdomyolysis, a complex medical condition involving the rapid dissolution of damaged or injured skeletal muscle.
The religious group’s leader, Buddhism writer Wang Yun (王薀), allegedly forced the woman to kneel in front of a Buddha statue as a form of repentance, before she collapsed from exhaustion, the investigation found.
After that, religious group’s chief executive, surnamed Wu (吳), a woman surnamed Chiang (姜) and Lee pushed Tsai’s body in a trolley from a restaurant to the property and left it there, surveillance video footage showed.
In the subsequent investigation, several suspects were detained, with prosecutors summoning Lee for questioning three times.
On Monday last week, Lee and his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), were released on bail for NT$300,000 (US$9,141) and NT$150,000 respectively.
The case would be heard by the Taipei District Court.
Chinese-language media reported that Tsai had been an accountant for the group, whose members were mostly white-collar professionals.
After her death, Tsai’s bank accounts, which combined had more than NT$2 million, were empty, the reports said.
Lee, who rose to fame after starring in the drama Toast Boy’s Kiss (吐司男之吻) in the 2000s, became a follower of Buddhism after leaving the entertainment business.
Additional reporting by CNA
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
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
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness. The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said. This also marks Taiwan’s third enterovirus-related death this year and the first severe
RSS