Twenty-two people were indicted yesterday for their roles in July's Kaoping River (
The five include Yang Wen-hsiung (
The prosecutor in the indictment laid out the reasons why 12 people should be charged with attempted homicide.
"According to the Criminal Code, an act is considered intentional if the perpetrator foresaw that the act would accomplish the constituent elements of an offense and that such an accomplishment was not contrary to his will.
"The accused, with their knowledge and experience, were aware of the high risk that the toxic solvent could cause cancer and death, but still continued to commit the offense without regard for the health of the general public," the indictment says.
In mid-July more than 100 tonnes of toxic solvent was dumped into Kaohsiung County's Chishan River (
The river is the main water supply for the Kaohsiung metropolitan area. Around 600,000 households were left without tap-water for five days after the dumping incident.
Prosecutors found that the toxic waste came from a Luchu (
According to the indictment, Eternal Chemical has since August 1997 contracted its waste disposal to Shengli Waste, a licensed handler, but never declared the details of its disposal process to authorities.
Instead, the indictment says, Eternal Chemical allowed Shengli to subcontract the deal to Chang and Lo, who were not licensed to handle industrial waste.
Chang and Lo are alleged to have used tanker trucks to dump the untreated toxic waste at random sites across Taiwan.
The indictment says that until last month, Chang and Lo had illegally disposed of roughly 13,900 tonnes of waste containing chemicals such as phenol, dimethylbenzene, benzene, ethylbenzene and styrene.
In addition to the 22 persons listed, Eternal and Shengli also received corporate indictments. The prosecutor requested that Eternal be fined NT$260 million and Shengli NT$160 million.
Others indicted include high-ranking officials from the two companies and drivers and workers who actually dumped the waste. For these people, the prosecutor requested sentences ranging between three and 12 years.
"The accused pursued huge profits at the price of profound and extensive environmental damage. Such criminal behavior is evil," said Shih Mao-lin (施茂林), prosecutor-general at the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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