Taiwan's law enforcement agencies will make public the entire contents of the report regarding the March 19 shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) when they feel the time is right, US-based forensic scientist Henry Lee (李昌鈺) said on Saturday.
Report
Lee, who was asked by the government to help examine the attempted assassination site and the two bullets found there, delivered his report on Aug. 28.
Lee said he guesses that investigators have yet to make the report public because they themselves have not obtained enough evidence.
"If the report is publicized, it may scare away suspects or lead to further destruction of evidence," Lee said.
Lee led a team to Taiwan in April to examine Chen and Lu's wounds, inspect the scene of the shooting and tour the hospital where Chen and Lu were taken for medical treatment.
Lee made the remarks after delivering a speech on his life in the US in Rosemead, a city near Los Angeles, on Saturday.
He was asked by reporters his opinion on why Taiwan has not released the full results of his report more than two months after it was presented to State Public Prosecutor-General Ru Jen-fa (盧仁發) prior to Ru's retirement in September.
Lee also said that he suggested that an independent investigation committee be established to investigate into all matters surrounding the election-eve shooting.
Independent
He added that members of the independent investigation committee should come from parties across the political spectrum and all the material in the report should be reviewed by completely neutral individuals before further investigations begin.
Lee reiterated that the way to crack the shooting case is to find the gun, believed to be a remodeled handgun, or the underground gunsmith where the weapon was made, or find the gunman who fired the two shots.
He said that he arrived at the scene in Tainan on April 9, almost 20 days after the shooting and, therefore, had great difficulty in reconstructing the scene.
As a forensic expert, Lee said his job is to reconstruct the scene and find as many clues as possible, not to crack the case.
In his report, Lee shed no new light on the case, in which little headway has been made with no major leads and no arrests after seven months.
Cause
He said in the report that the president's injury to the abdomen was caused by a bullet and that the bullets retrieved were not used in regular handguns.
The most significant finding in his draft report was the special "tool marks" on a shell casing found at the scene. Lee suggested in the report that police continue to aggressively search for and seize all illegal firearms in the country and "examine and compare all the guns."
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
Taiwan is to extend its visa-waiver program for Philippine passport holders for another year, starting on Aug. 1, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said on Friday. Lin made the announcement during a reception in Taipei marking the 127th anniversary of Philippine independence and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The decision reflected Taiwan’s commitment to deepening exchanges with the Philippines, the statement cited Lin as saying, adding that it was a key partner under the New Southbound Policy launched in 2016. Lin also expressed hope
RSS