Former Hsinchu City Bureau of Cultural Affairs chief Chu Mei-feng (
"I want to cut off all relations and connections between Tsai and myself from now on," Chu said before she entered a pretrial hearing regarding her sex-VCD scandal at the Taipei District Court yesterday.
"I don't care what other people might think of me. I don't want to sue him anymore. Let bygones be bygones."
According to Chung Yung-sheng (鍾永盛), Chu's lawyer, Chu arrived at his office on Tuesday afternoon and told him that she wanted to drop the charge against Tsai.
"I explained the costs and effects of the plan to her and asked her to think twice, but she insisted on going ahead," Chung said.
While Tsai will now be listed as a witness in the case instead of a defendant, Chu was less forgiving toward two other defendants in the case.
"I will never forgive Kuo Yu-ling (
Kuo was a friend and spiritual teacher of Chu. Kuo and Kao have both been charged with invasion of privacy along with Tsai.
However, Article 239 of the Criminal Code says that by dropping the charge against Tsai, the same charge against Kuo and Kao will be automatically dropped as well.
Invasion of privacy is a criminal charge but can be dropped at the request of the plaintiff.
However, prosecutors are pursuing charges against several defendants, including Kao and Kuo, for other offences against privacy, offending public morals and forging documents.
Kuo allegedly planted a hidden camera in Chu's Tamsui apartment last year with the help of Tsai, Chu's former lover, and recorded material of Chu having sex with a married man.
Kuo then, along with her daughter, allegedly sold the material to Scoop magazine, which released it on a VCD that was distributed in a December edition.
Senior Prosecutor Lin Jinn-tsun's (林錦村) indictment suggested a four-year sentence for Kuo; a two-year-and-two-month sentence for Scoop magazine President Shen Yeh (沈野); a one-year-and-four-month sentence for his daughter, Shen Jung (沈嶸), who is also the publisher for the magazine; and a one-year-and-10-month sentence for Shen Yeh's assistant, Wei An (韋安).
Without suggesting sentences, the indictment also names Kao; Scoop magazine employees Lin Jia-nan (
Chung-ti Technology was the company that produced and duplicated the VCD for the magazine.
Chung said that Chu's civil claim of NT$50 million from Kuo, Kao and Tsai would be dropped along with the invasion of privacy charges.
However, she is pursuing other claims for damages of NT$20.6 million from Kuo; NT$60 million from Shen Yeh, Shen Jung, Wei, Lin Jia-nan, Shao, Wang Hsu-yun and Wang Ya-wei, and NT$3 million from Hu.
A further pre-trial hearing is scheduled for today.
National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday said it disqualified a person from an entrance examination for using AI smart glasses to cheat, along with two others for making untruthful statements in their curriculum vitae. The three applicants were given null scores, Taiwan’s highest-ranked university said, calling on prospective students to be honest in the admissions process. NTU registrar Lee Hung-sen (李宏森) said that the cheating applicant wore a hat and thick-rimmed glasses to the second written exam for medical school, claiming that they felt cold. Suspicions were aroused when the applicant stared oddly at the test for long stretches while steadily bringing the paper
MILITARY ISSUES: A partisan divide between the Cabinet and the legislature ‘raised questions about Taiwan’s ability to adequately fund its defense,’ the report said Taiwan’s defense budget, military personnel numbers and resilience are challenges to its ability to meet national defense goals, the US Naval Institute said in a report published on Tuesday. In response to the perception of a growing military threat posed by China, Taiwan has embarked on an effort to enhance the capabilities needed to deter an attempt by Beijing to annex the nation by force, the institute said in the US Congressional Research Service report, titled Taiwan: Defense and Military Issues, which was filed on Thursday last week. Taiwan’s defense budget increased by about 7.5 percent from 2024 to last year, it
NOT JUST NUMBERS: What matters to intelligence work is crucial, reliable information, so even a few credible leads can be highly valuable to national security, a legislator said The National Security Bureau (NSB) yesterday said it has finished the establishment of an information-reporting channel for Chinese nationals, the aim of which is to broaden intelligence gathering on China’s political, military, economic and social developments. Chinese nationals can submit information on the Web page, https://report.nsb.gov.tw, the NSB said in a statement. The move aims to expand the bureau’s diverse intelligence sources and is pursuant to the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), it said, adding that it referenced practices adopted by intelligence agencies in the US, the UK and Israel. An increasing number of people are approaching Taiwanese agencies to provide information, as
66 FIGHTER JETS: The aircraft is likely undergoing preparations for its transfer to Taiwan — a significant step forward in the nation’s modernization program, a lawmaker said The first of Taiwan’s order of F-16V Block 70 aircraft has been sighted in Texas ahead of delivery, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said. Taiwan’s first F-16V Block 70 two-seat aircraft, tail number 6831, was seen flying from Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Greenville, South Carolina, to Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in Texas, Wang wrote on Facebook yesterday. The plane is likely undergoing preparations for its transfer to Taiwan, marking a significant step forward in the Republic of China Air Force’s modernization program, Wang said, citing military analysts. The F-16V Block 70 is a new-build version
RSS