A former China Times employee was hauled in for questioning yesterday for allegedly calling seven foreign representative offices and threatening their diplomats on April 16, warning them not to attend President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) inauguration on May 20.
Hsieh Hung-yi (謝宏毅), 42, had been a proofreader for the Chinese-language newspaper but was laid off last December, the National Police Administration's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday.
He was arrested at his Panchiao residence on Tuesday afternoon and was released last night.
The police said he initially denied the allegations but admitted to the crime yesterday morning.
"Hsieh is an educated man who graduated from National Taiwan University's History Department. He told us that he committed the crime because he hates the Chen administration as he lost a lot of money on the stock market," CIB Commissioner Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said.
When approached by reporters at the CIB, Hsieh was still denying allegations he threatened the diplomats.
"I did not blackmail them," Hsieh said. "I simply hoped that they would not join the inauguration."
Police are investigating whether Hsieh was acting on orders from Beijing.
Hsieh married a Chinese woman a few years ago but the marriage ended in divorce.
He married another Chinese woman last year. The police investigation showed that he came back from China on April 7.
Hsieh allegedly called the American Institute in Taiwan as well as six embassies -- those of Panama, Dominica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador -- and threatened embassy employees, telling them their ambassadors would be assassinated if they attend Chen's inauguration.
The embassies reported the calls to police and said their diplomats will join the inauguration as planned.
The CIB spotted Hsieh's name by reviewing phone records, discovering that he made calls to the embassies from the Hsinpu and Hsimen MRT stations.
"With the help of community security video systems, we finally located him near Wenhua Road in Panchiao, Taipei County," said Chen Che-wen (
Police transferred Hsieh to the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office after a short interrogation at the CIB.
Prosecutors applied to the Taipei District Court to detain Hsieh, but the court said the case was a matter for the High Court to decide.
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