The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office yesterday indicted Chinese "magic healer" Zhang Ying (
Zhang, 38, came to public attention in January when she performed in front of TV cameras what she proclaimed was her "miraculous power" of "snatching medicine pills out of thin air."
But a local magician exposed her "miraculous power" as mere sleight of hand, also right before TV cameras.
In the indictment the prosecutor said Zhang had "treated" six "patients."
One patient had paid Zhang US$600 for the pills prescribed for herself, her husband, and her mother-in-law, though Zhang refunded the money the following day, the indictment says.
In another case, prosecutors said, patients of Zhang who had been deceived by her trickery treated her to meals in lieu of payment for medical treatment.
Zhang's friend, Taiwanese woman Hsieh Szu-tao (
According to the results of lab tests, the indictment says, the pills that Zhang conjured "out of thin air" did in fact contain medicine.
The prosecutors concluded that Zhang was practicing medicine without the necessary qualifications and license.
The fraud charge brought against Zhang carries a punishment of up to five years' imprisonment.
However, the prosecutor recommended that Zhang's sentence be increased since she carried out repeated criminal acts.
As for the way Zhang performed her tricks, the indictments says that Zhang -- just as the local magician had revealed -- would hide medicinal powder in her palms or beneath a table beforehand and then rub the powder into pills in a way that her patients would not notice.
Zhang, reported to be five months pregnant, is still barred from leaving the country, though she has been asking to leave for her home in the US.
Zhang came to Taiwan last December on an entry permit for visiting relatives here.
She has been barred from leaving since January, when prosecutors launched the criminal investigation.
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