Although prosecutors have suggested a life sentence for suspected "gas bomber" Kao Po-chung (高寶中) but made no suggestion about a possible sentence for self-confessed "rice bomber" Yang Ju-men (楊儒門), prosecutors yesterday said that these two defendants will be facing similar punishments.
"Yang repeated his crimes many times, but Kao only blew up his minivan once," said Cheng Ker-sheng (鄭客盛), a Taipei prosecutor who was in charge of the investigation into the "rice bomber" case.
"While Kao is facing a potential life sentence, Yang will be facing either life sentence or the death penalty, although we did not suggest any sentence for him," he said.
Cheng yesterday responded to questions from the public about why no sentence had been suggested for Yang.
"We did not suggest any sentence for Yang because we understood that he was merely trying to fight for local rice farmers and did not intend to hurt anybody. However, that does not mean that what he did was right or that he will not be punished at all," Cheng said.
In addition to admitting responsibility for 17 explosions in northern Taiwan, Yang admitted to making 21 false bomb threats, Cheng said.
Yang's actions were in contravention of Article 7 of the Gun Control Act (
"That is why I said Yang and Kao are actually facing similar punishments when judges begin to hear their cases," Cheng said.
Yang was indicted on Jan. 25. He is still being held at the Taipei House of Detention following a court decision to grant prosecutors' request for an extension to his term of detention.
The bomb threats began on Oct. 27 last year. The bomber's trademark was leaving a small packet of rice at the scene. He also left notes or letters expressing support for local rice farmers and condemning the importation of rice.
Kao, the suspected "gas bomber," was indicted on Monday. Suggesting a life sentence, prosecutors charged him with violation of the Gun Control Act, attempted murder, endangering public safety, arson and theft.
Kao allegedly told prosecutors that he had been upset about huge losses in the stock market and that he believed politics had affected the economy, which in turn made him lose a considerable amount of money.
It is suspected that Kao was behind the Dec. 9 incident in which 11 20kg gas tanks exploded in a stolen minivan next to the Taipei Railway Station. Nobody was injured in the explosion, although two vehicles were damaged.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching