Taipei prosecutors said yesterday that they plan to summon a former branch manager at Taiwan Cooperative Bank, who claims to have had an intimate relationship with the woman accused of kidnapping a KMT lawmaker.
Prosecutors also said yesterday that they would summon a police officer in the city's Criminal Investigation Department.
The police officer is said to be a close friend of Chan Hui-hua (詹惠華), the woman accused in the kidnapping of Taichung lawmaker Huang Hsien-chou (黃顯洲).
Kuo Yung-fa (郭永發), a prosecutor at the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office, said yesterday that the former branch manager had contacted prosecutors on Friday.
The bank employee -- who sources say had been demoted to researcher because of problems with his personal life -- claims that Chan was a "professional prostitute" and very good at lying.
According to local media, the former bank manager has said he gave Chan a monthly allowance as a part of their relationship.
He said he believed Chan may have extorted Huang.
"He used to be a branch manager," said an employee at Taiwan Cooperative Bank, who knows the former bank manager. "Three years ago, he was demoted from branch manager to senior researcher at the bank's headquarters because of his messed-up private life."
Kuo said the police officer to be summoned is one of Chan's close male friends.
"Currently, we do not have any evidence showing that this police officer is involved in this case or any other illegal deals with Chan," Kuo said.
"However, due to his relationship with Chan, we assume that he should have a basic knowledge of the case and we do need him to step forward and help us clarify some questions."
Taipei police and prosecutors returned to the Grand Hyatt Taipei on Saturday to collect more evidence in the kidnapping case.
"There are more than 100 videotapes from the hotel's security cameras which recorded pictures from different corners between Dec. 27 and Jan. 1," Kuo said. "Up to now, we have finished reviewing three of them."
Kuo said one of the tapes shows Huang accompanied by a woman taking an elevator to the 25th floor on Dec. 27.
"Unfortunately, we can only see the woman's silhouette instead of her face, so we cannot confirm if Chan is the woman in the video," Kuo said.
"But at least from the video, both Huang and the woman looked very normal -- like nothing had happened."
The prosecutor also said that a check of hotel records confirmed that Chan had checked into a hotel room on the 25th floor on Dec. 27 and checked out on Dec. 31. She also appears in a surveillance video.
"Like Huang and the female, Chan looked very normal and natural on the video and one couldn't tell that there was anything wrong."
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