After marathon questioning by police and prosecutors, the Shihlin District Court yesterday issued a detention order for a couple who hijacked a tour bus for more than four hours on Saturday.
Miaoli resident Chang Wen-liang (張文亮) and his wife Chuang Pao-yun (莊寶雲) grabbed the TV spotlight nationwide yesterday when they boarded a Taipei-bound tour bus in Hsinchu and hijacked it.
During the standoff with police on Chungching North Road in Taipei, the two demanded to meet with Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
The hostage drama ended when police stormed the bus and arrested the couple after Chuang came out to hand a written petition to Chen.
After some initial questioning on Saturday night, police stopped the interrogation after Chang refused to answer any more questions during the night and his wife appeared to be in a distraught state. But police completed the questioning of Tseng Te-kuang (
Questioning of the couple resumed at the Tatung Police Station at around 7am yesterday.
They were then sent to the Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office at around noon for further questioning.
Apparently in a state of deep anxiety, the wife denied any hijacking and spoke inconsistently, according to Chinese-language media. She then fell asleep at around 9am, prompting the officers to bring in a physician from a nearby hospital. In contrast, the husband appeared relatively calm, admitting that he had bought the pistol used in the hijack at a price of NT$6,000.
The couple face charges of illegal possession of firearms, obstruction of personal liberty, endangering public safety and attempted murder. The last charge is based on the wife's verbal threats to kill the driver during the hijack.
Chinese-language media quoted unnamed neighbors of the couple in Miaoli yesterday as saying the two have mental problems and often talk of people conspiring against them. Police refused to comment on the reports, saying it should be the responsibility of medical experts to check the couple's mental condition.
According to the couple's written petition, they were upset about three different issues: a prosecutor's failure to question a number of men who they said had beaten up their son; a police questioning over a dispute regarding water and electricity bills; and a local district office's rejection of their application for a copy of land zoning documents.
Police also charged Ko Szu-hai (柯賜海), a self-proclaimed campaigner for stray dogs, with obstructing police officers working at the scene of the hijack on Sunday. Ko tried to used the media attention surrounding the hostage standoff to promote his cause.
Ko is known for a number of attention-grabbing antics, including taking packs of stray dogs to his protests at government offices, and bombarding the phone lines of government and business offices with repeated automatic phone calls.
RSS