In a case that has exposed part of Taipei's unseemly underbelly, prosecutors yesterday indicted 13 people, including six former police officers, for extortion and harassment in a prostitution and extortion scandal that first erupted in September.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for former officer Chen Liang-ta (陳良達), who, in their words, "remains unrepentant and uncooperative," and used his police authority to harass, threaten and extort money from prostitutes and their associates. Chen was at the time assigned to the Xiamen branch of the Taipei Police Headquarters' Chungcheng Second Precinct.
Prosecutors are seeking lighter sentences for officers who showed contrition and cooperated with the investigation.
"These former police officers used their powers to threaten the prostitutes, detain them and extort money from their managers. As for the brothel drivers, they shared the extortion money with rogue police officers while continuing to [transport prostitutes] for the brothels," said Chu Chao-min (朱兆民), head of the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office (台北地檢署).
"Of the suspects, Chen has never admitted regret for what he did," he added. "As a result, we are seeking the death penalty for him."
Chen Yi-feng (陳逸峰), chief inspector of the Taipei City Police Headquarters, said that senior officers at headquarters would not protect officers if they committed crimes.
"We're very sorry for this," Chen said. "However, the truth is, they broke the law and they must be punished to maintain the public's confidence in the police. This scandal damages the image of all hardworking police officers. We need to do something to make it up to them and rebuild our reputation."
The series of mini-scandals began on Sept. 4, when Taipei City's Criminal Investigation Corps arrested four suspects who reportedly were pretending to be clients. The suspects would request call-girls from China and would then "kidnap" the girls and extort money from their managers.
Two of the suspects, Liu Chun-hui (劉春輝) and Tu Chia-shen (杜家申), were police officers and admitted to prosecutors that they had masterminded the crime because they needed money to repay loan sharks.
On Sept. 8 last year, the Criminal Investigation Corps identified and arrested three more police officers from the Ta-an Police Precinct suspected of being members of the same syndicate.
The three officers denied the allegations but were suspended from duty and charged with malfeasance and the deliberate release of a suspected criminal. It is believed the released suspect was a prostitute who they were using to extort money from her brothel manager.
Then, on Sept. 21, the scandal snowballed. Investigators searched a brothel which was suspected of being managed by Detective Lin Chia-fu (林家福) from Taipei's Chungcheng Second Police Precinct. They discovered Lin's personal belongings, including account books, and a list of what police said was a list of other brothel managers he extorted from and the amounts they paid him.
On Sept. 19, before prosecutors were able to track down Lin, he had left for Macau and headed to China a few days later. Police say he remains there.
Prosecutors sought life sentences for Liu Chun-hui (劉春輝) and Tu Chia-shen (杜家申), former officers with the National Police Administration's First Public Security Police Corps. Tu Chien-hua (涂建華) and Chuang Wen-tsung (莊文宗), from the Chungshan Precinct's Yuan-shan Police Station, also face life sentences. Lee Shih-hsuan (李世璿) from the Yuan-shan Police Station faces 10 years in prison.
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