The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that a Taiwanese expatriate is being detained in Los Angeles for alleged sexual misconduct in Belize, where he practiced acupuncture and Chinese medicine.
The Chinese-language China Times yesterday reported that Kevin Lee (李崑臨) allegedly molested several of his Belizian female patients and videotaped them as they got undressed. Many of the alleged victims were said to be wives of politically prominent men and well-known socialites.
The Taiwanese embassy in Belize has been closely monitoring the situation since late last month when the case broke and it is now assisting Belizian police with their investigation, ministry spokesman James Chang (章計平) said.
Ambassador to Belize David Wu (吳建國) said in a telephone interview with Central News Agency on Monday that Lee, who has lived in Belize for nearly two decades, had been accused of secretly filming his patients, but that he did not commit sexual assaults as has been alleged.
“This is not a sexual assault case. No wives of ranking Belize officials fell prey to Lee,” Wu said.
Wu also confirmed Lee’s arrest.
The China Times reported that a technician who was fixing Lee’s PC several weeks ago found nearly 600 video files on Lee’s hard disk that allegedly showed several Belizian socialites and ministers’ wives being sexually molested in his clinic. A disk of the videos began to circulate after an attempt to blackmail Lee failed, causing uproar in the country.
Sources who have watched the videos said the supposed victims seemed to have been sexually assaulted when in a dazed state, the report said.
The alleged victims apparently include female diplomats from other countries stationed in Belize and their dependents, prompting Belizian police to issue an international warrant for Lee through Interpol, which led to Lee’s arrest last week, the newspaper report added.
Wu said his embassy has learned that a suspect who is accused of trying to blackmail Lee showed a disk and the letter used in the blackmail attempt to a leader of the Taiwanese expatriate community in Belize.
The disk showed a patient undressing. Wu said as the two parties played the disk over dinner, a Belizian official nearby alerted a minister and the matter came to light.
The diplomat said the alleged victims were average Belizian citizens and that no wives of ranking officials were involved, as far as the embassy knew. He said reports that wives of senior officials were involved was simply speculation and that police in the country had yet to confirm them.
Because many of the 1,000 Taiwanese living in Belize practice Chinese medicine, Wu expressed the hope that the incident would not hurt Taiwanese expatriates in Belize and that it would not affect Taiwan’s image in the country.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s (黎智英) fraud conviction and prison sentence were yesterday overturned by a Hong Kong court, in a surprise legal decision that comes soon after Lai was jailed for 20 years on a separate national security charge. Judges Jeremy Poon (潘兆初), Anthea Pang (彭寶琴) and Derek Pang (彭偉昌) said in the judgement that they allowed the appeal from Lai, and another defendant in the case, to proceed, as a lower court judge had “erred.” “The Court of Appeal gave them leave to appeal against their conviction, allowed their appeals, quashed the convictions and set aside the sentences,” the judges
RSS