Taoyuan County police and prosecutors yesterday detained Huang Shih-chen (黃世鎮), chairman of the county's Kuishan (龜山) township council, as their main suspect in the kidnapping of Taoyuan County Councilor Tseng Chung-yi (曾忠義).
Tseng was kidnapped on his way home from a campaign rally in Linkou township, Taipei County, on Saturday. His kidnappers demanded a NT$150 million ransom.
With a warrant issued by Tao-yuan County prosecutors, police arrived at Huang's residence yesterday morning and arrested him. After interviewing him at the county's police headquarters for more than seven hours, they transferred him to the Taoyuan District Prosecutors' Office for further questioning yesterday evening.
Chang Fu-ching (張福景), deputy chief of the Taoyuan County Police Headquarters, said that there were "at least two other suspects on the loose" other than Huang.
Chang said the police had discovered that Wang Kunn-hsiang (王坤相), nicknamed "the elephant," whom Tseng had identified as one of the kidnappers, had spoken to Huang on a cell phone a few days before Tseng was kidnapped.
In addition, a number of witnesses told police that Wang and Huang knew each other. As a result, Chang said, police suspect that Huang knew the details of the case and could be the instigator of the abduction.
Deputy Chief Chang said that both Huang and Tseng told police that they were good friends. Huang has also admitted that he served as the "negotiator," ostensibly for Tseng's family, when the kidnappers telephoned with their ransom demand.
Huang denied all the charges against him and claimed that he "would not do such a thing to a good friend."
Tseng was released by his captors on Monday morning. His family refuses to say whether they paid the ransom. Chang said, however, that the Tseng's "didn't pay the kidnappers a penny."
Chang said that Huang had recently accumulated substantial debts. "We suspect this to be the main reason for him to carry out this kidnapping," he said.
"According to our investigation, Huang has recently gambled a lot and has lost a lot of money. Tseng, on the other hand, is fairly rich and lives in a mansion in Taoyuan. Tseng's money might have enticed Huang to kidnap him."
He also said, however, that many facts of the case remain to be established. Police, he said, haven't established why the kidnappers exposed their faces to Tseng rather than wearing masks. In addition, investigators still don't know the exact number of perpetrators.
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