The Ministry of Justice yesterday said it would today make a request to the Swiss government to arrest and repatriate British fugitive Zain Dean, who fled Taiwan in August last year on someone else’s passport.
Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) made the remark last night after citing information obtained from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that its representative offices overseas reported that Dean had absconded to Switzerland.
The ministry earlier yesterday said it has notified all of its representative offices to work with their host nations in an effort to track down Dean.
Taiwan hopes to work with the government of whichever country Dean is found in to get him sent back to Taipei to serve his four-year prison term, ministry spokesperson Steve Hsia (夏季昌) said.
Hsia said Taiwan’s representative office in the UK has also been working closely with British government agencies.
The office said on Tuesday that it had rejected conditions set by Dean for him to return to Taiwan.
Representative to the UK Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) said the office received an e-mail from Dean in which he said he would only be willing to return on four conditions: a retrial, having previously unreleased video evidence presented in court, having human rights observers present at the new trial and for him to be free of discrimination based on his skin color. He is of South Asian descent.
Dean was convicted in July last year of the death of a newspaper deliveryman in Taipei in March 2010 while allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
RSS