The Chinese-language media reported yesterday that an unidentified person contacted prosecutors on Tuesday, claiming that a politician from Hsinchu was behind the recent sex VCD scandal.
Suspect Kuo Yu-ling (
The man was questioned by prosecutors afterward and the results led to Kuo being summoned a second time and later detained, the report said.
Prosecutors at the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office denied the report.
Kuo, a "spiritual growth" instructor with a US-based group named Avatar, was detained yesterday on suspicion of involvement in the creation and release of a secretly recorded VCD allegedly depicting a sexual encounter between Chu Mei-feng (璩美鳳), the former director of Hsinchu's Cultural Affairs Bureau, and married businessman Tseng Chung-ming (曾仲銘).
Kuo, a close friend of Chu, is believed to have had a falling out with Chu in August. The cause of the soured friendship is still unclear, although local media speculation has suggested a financial dispute and a love triangle.
Kuo, who had the keys to Chu's house in Tamsui, did not return them to Chu until September, the report said.
A detective agency has confirmed with prosecutors that Kuo had bought a pinhole camera and had it installed at Chu's house, the report said.
Investigators suspect Kuo may have installed the pinhole camera as early as July of this year, according to the report. The camera has apparently been removed since then and investigators are still looking into how and where the camera was installed in Chu's bedroom.
Kuo had also taken security tapes out of Chu's apartment complex twice in July, the report said.
Chu is also a former girlfriend of Hsinchu's former DPP mayor Tsai Jen-chien (
On Dec. 1, Tsai lost his re-election bid and Chu lost her legislative bid to represent the New Party in the Taichung constituency.
Meanwhile, the Hsinchu City Government was hit by fallout from the scandal after newly inaugurated KMT Mayor Lin Jeng-jzer (林政則) said the city's anti-corruption department was preparing a report into alleged irregularities in the creation of a special budget for "spiritual growth" courses for city officials while Tsai was in office.
Chu was one of the officials who attended Avatar classes taught by Kuo.
Lin also hinted that the courses were pushed through by a former high-level city official, adding that neither Chu nor Tsai was the official in question.
Lin appeared to be pointing the finger at former deputy mayor Lin Cheng-chieh (
The new Hsinchu mayor did not elaborate on how spending on the spiritual growth course violated regulations, but said the city government will not require its officials to attend any more spiritual courses.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that