The Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office yesterday indicted a couple who hijacked a bus in June, recommending that both be sentenced to seven years in jail.
The bus hijack caused a sensation on the afternoon of June 23 when Chang Wen-liang (張文亮) and his wife Chuang Pao-yun (莊寶雲) used a homemade handgun to take the bus driver and 13 passengers hostage, sparking a four hour-confrontation with the police. The offenders and their hostages were unharmed in the incident.
The prosecutors charged the couple with an offense against public safety.
"The two hijacked public transport for the mere purpose of highlighting their demands. Such behavior caused public disquiet and endangered social stability," the indictment says.
"Therefore [the prosecution] requests that they be sentenced to seven-years imprisonment, so others will be deterred," it says.
Chang and Chuang claimed they were victims of judicial and governmental injustice. They hijacked the bus to back up their demand to see Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
According to the Criminal Code, the offense of hijacking vessels and vehicles used for public transport is punishable with prison terms not shorter than five years, but in trivial circumstances with imprisonment not longer than three years.
Chen Wen-chi (陳文琪), a prosecutor for the Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office, said by asking for the seven-year sentence the prosecution was suggesting that the two should be punished harshly.
The family and neighbors of the couple have said that the two have mental problems. Prosecutors have denied the claim.
"Taking into account their performance during investigation and the diagnosis by doctors, we did not find any signs showing they have mental problems," Chen said.
On the day of the incident Chang and Chuang, Miaoli County residents, boarded the Taipei-bound highway bus at Chupei (
Pretending that he didn't know the location of the ministry, Tseng phoned his company.
The police stopped the bus on Chungching North Road in Taipei.
The confrontation between the police and the hijackers ended at 5:40pm when the hijackers opened the door to let Minister Chen Ding-nan in and the police took the opportunity to arrest them.
The injustices the couple allege included that a Taichung prosecutor failed to indict people who beat up their son, that a Miaoli land administration officer deliberately caused trouble for them about land affairs, and a dispute about water and electricity payments.
The case of Chang and Chuang was the first one heard under a legal provision concerning the offense of hijacking vessels and vehicles passed in 1999.
The provision followed concern raised by a 1998 bus hijacking in Taipei.
Because there was no provision in the law prescribing a punishment for vehicular hijacking, the prosecutors charged the offender Chen Neng-ping (
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