The crewman from a Taiwanese fishing vessel charged with killing his captain and first mate before hijacking the ship on the high seas off Hawaii made an initial appearance in a US court Friday.
Lei Shi of China was assigned a public defender and asked if he understood the charges against him by US Magistrate Leslie Kobayashi.
Shackled at the ankles, dressed in federal-issued blue garb and wearing bandages around both wrists, Shi was subdued as he listened to Kobayashi through an interpreter.
Defense attorney Shanlyn Park said her client understood the criminal complaint, which was interpreted to him earlier.
Shi, a cook, was charged on Thursday -- his 21st birthday -- with commandeering the Full Means No. 2 after fatally stabbing the captain and first mate during an argument on March 14, federal prosecutors said.
After controlling the ship for two days, the crew eventually overpowered Shi and tied him up. The quarrel was apparently over Shi's wishes to return to China.
The federal offense of "seizing control of a ship by means of murder" is punishable by the death penalty, assistant US Attorney Elliott Enoki said Friday.
Enoki said the decision to seek the death penalty would be made by US Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Prosecutors also noted that Shi was his correct surname, contrary to previous court documents filed by prosecutors that stated his surname as Lei.
The 30 crew members remaining on the ship are cooperating with the investigation and are not being detained. However, the vessel is considered a crime scene, Enoki said.
Shi is not expected to be sent to his native China because the US does not have an extradition treaty with that country, Enoki said.
He would not comment on any diplomatic issues with China or Taiwan.
The Taiwanese captain, Chen Chung-she, was thrown overboard and his body was not recovered. The first mate, Li Da Feng of China, was found inside the ship's freezer. He died about 12 hours after he was stabbed, according to a criminal complaint filed by the FBI.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS