Liu Kuan-chun (劉冠軍), the runaway former National Security Bureau (NSB) official, is hiding in North America, not in China, DPP lawmaker Chang Ching-fang (張清芳) said at a press conference yesterday.
Chang said that he has Liu's address and has given the information to the NSB as well as the Bureau of Investigation so they can arrest him in the near future. "Agents are preparing to arrest him," he said.
Chang also said he did not understand why Liu is rumored to be in China.
"This rumor has damaged our intelligence system and has endangered our secret service agents who are currently working in Ch-ina," said Chang. "The main reason for today's press conference is to dispel this rumor and tell our secret service agents to relax because they were not exposed at all. However, we need to catch Liu and bring him back to Taiwan as soon as possible."
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Asked where Liu is staying, Chang said that he has to keep Liu's location secret to prevent Liu from changing his residence.
However, a Chinese-language newspaper quoted anonymous sources on March 28 as saying that Liu was hiding in Canada and was being watched by NSB agents. Liu has allegedly chosen to hide in Canada because he has a brother living there.
"Our information is pretty reliable," Chang added. "He was seen by some overseas Taiwanese who are living there. I mean, not many people saw him, but his location was spotted, identified, and confirmed by reliable sources. I think it shouldn't be a problem for our investigators to catch him in the near future."
Liu, the former NSB chief cashier, is wanted for his alleged embezzlement of over NT$192 million from Taiwan's secret funds for national security. Chang said that Liu fled overseas and left for Xiamen (廈門), China, on Sept. 3, 2000, and then arrived in Shanghai on the same day. He later fled to Bangkok in January last year, and showed up in a west coast city in North America a few days after he appeared in Bangkok. Reliable sources say that Liu is still in Canada.
"We have no idea how he fled from Taiwan to North America," Chang said. "At this moment, we believe that he used a fake Taiwan passport, but we do not know how he got it. However, since his visa has expired, he can no longer legally enter a third country. That will help investigators arrest him, too."
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