The attorney for the president's embattled son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming (
The seven `men in black' raised eyebrows on Thursday when they abruptly appeared and acted as Chao's bodyguards during the hearing, and the local media has been rife with speculation about their identities.
Chao's attorney Ku Li-hsiung (
Ku made the remarks yesterday on the sidelines of the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) national convention.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper) yesterday quoted an anonymous source at a Taipei City police branch station as saying that Lo had asked a volunteer surnamed Cheng (鄭) at the Taipei police's Sungshan Precinct headquarters to hire the men as bodyguards for Chao.
The men were hired to prevent Chao from being jostled when appearing in court, the report said.
Local media, including the TV stations TVBS and FTV, yesterday reported that the men worked as nightclub bouncers.
Ku yesterday said his client had asked for Lo's help because Chao no longer has a personal driver and bodyguards.
Given the public uproar and suspicion stirred up by the mysterious identity of the "men in black," Ku said that he would advise Chao to keep a lower profile.
He would also advise Chao to be more careful when seeking assistance from friends, Ku added.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
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