Taipei police yesterday identified Chen Chin-tien (陳進添), an anti-pension reform activist and military veteran, as the suspect who threw a smoke bomb that disrupted the Taipei Summer Universiade’s opening ceremony on Saturday.
Protesters had prevented the athletes from entering the Taipei Municipal Stadium, the venue for the opening ceremony.
Several officers were injured in clashes with the demonstrators.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Taipei Police Department Deputy Commissioner Lin Shun-chia (林順家) said that a joint task force of the Criminal Investigation Bureau and Taipei Police Department are investigating the incident.
A review of footage from security cameras and mobile devices led to the identification of Chen, Lin said.
Police had earlier identified another man, surnamed Yen (顏), as the man who attacked a police officer, Lin added.
As of yesterday, Taipei district prosecutors and the task force had summoned 10 people, including Chen, for questioning about the clashes near the stadium, Lin said, adding that they plan to summon another seven.
At press time last night, Chen was still being questioned by prosecutors.
“This is only the first wave of our investigation. We will continue the effort to identify individuals who have broken the law during the opening ceremony by reviewing evidence and footages. The security deployment of the police is under review for any and all possible improvement,” he said.
A total of 17 individuals have been called for questioning, including the seven.
Prior to the police identification, a social media post that went viral accused pro-independence activist Chen Yi-ting (陳儀庭) of being the smoke bomb thrower — an accusation that Chen Yi-ting vigorously denied.
However, a police statement said that the photograph of Chen Yi-ting used in the social media post was taken several hours before the incident.
The police had found a YouTube video uploaded by netizen Wu Ching-tan (巫清潭) that showed Chen Chin-tien holding a pack emitting smoke and trying to hurl it just moments before the incident, which led to his positive identification, sources said.
Wu wrote on Facebook that he supports Taiwanese independence and that he saw during the protest that anti-pension reform activists were swarming weak points of the police line and hitting officers with bamboo sticks.
Additional reporting by Cheng Ching-yi
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