A businessman was rescued by police in Taipei County yesterday after being held hostage for 22 days.
Chou Pu-pin (
Yesterday afternoon, the police successfully rescued Chou from an apartment in a multi-story building in Hsichih (汐止), Taipei County. They arrested two suspects guarding Chou, who are reportedly illegal Chinese immigrants.
At the scene police found handcuffs used to restrain Chou during his ordeal, but said that Chou was basically unharmed.
Five people have been arrested for the crime thus far, including a former agent of the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau's (MJIB) Hsinchu County branch, Chai Yung-sen (
Chou went missing after work on July 24. His wife opened their mailbox four days later to find a computer-typed ransom letter. The letter asked Chou's family to remit US$4 million to an account at the Bank of Roma in Hong Kong.
Over the next few days, the family received first another letter and then a cassette tape, urging them to pay the ransom.
The second letter was delivered by express mail and the tape via taxi.
A taxi driver was arrested by police for ferrying the tape, but he said he was pre-paid by a client to take the cassette to the appointed destination.
Chou's family then deposited NT$1 million into the indicated account. Police traced the account and arrested a woman and her husband. The ransom was never withdrawn.
The couple denied knowing anything about the kidnapping and claimed they were only "dummies." They said that a certain Chai Yung-sen rented the account from them for alleged business use.
Police arrested Chai on Aug. 3 in Taipei. The couple was then released.
Police on Sunday arrested another suspect, Hu Yi-kuang (
Yesterday evening, police arrested Wu Yen-lung (
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