Kaohsiung County police launched an investigation yesterday to determine if any of its officers were involved in an imprisonment case in which three people were held in custody and tortured by loan shark gangsters for months.
Kaohsiung City police on Tuesday night saved the three victims and busted loan shark gangster Chang Chin-tai (張進泰) and his wife on suspicion of imprisoning and torturing three defaulting customers over a 270-day period.
Chang and his wife, Huang Hsiu-li (
tea breaks
Chinese-language newspapers the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper) and the China Times reported yesterday that some Fengshan police officers were familiar with Chang and often stopped by his shop, located about 500m from Fengshan police station, to have tea with Chang.
The reports said that as various illegal businesses were involved with suspected gangsters around the Fengshan Railway Station and as Chang knew many people in that area, he had offered police some information relating to criminal cases they were probing.
Kaohsiung County police were embarrassed when the captives were rescued by Kaohsiung City police and it was suspected the bureau might have turned a blind eye on the case.
"We learned that some Fengshan police officers knew Chang and went to his shops on some occasions, but they told the authorities they did not know that individuals were held prisoner at the shop," Kaohsiung County Police Vice Commissioner Chen Tsiao-Long (陳朝龍) told reporters yesterday.
He said the bureau had formed a task force to probe the matter.
warning
Chen said that the family of the victims, surnamed Cho, twice reported -- in October and February -- to Chishan (
Because the victims' family only reported the disappearance as a missing case rather than a possible kidnapping, Chen said Chishan police did nothing except list the couple in the nation's list of missing individuals.
prisoners
Police said that the couple owed Chang a total of NT$1.8 million (US$54,000), but were unable to make the payments.
The couple then fled but they were tracked down by Chang and his gangsters, who on Aug. 27 held them hostage in Chang's shop.
Another victim, surnamed Ou (
The two male victims were chained and forced to sit in their underpants while Cho's wife was held in the attic.
In addition to regular beatings, Chang provided them with just two meals a day and only allowed them to take a shower once a week. The conditions were appalling, police said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard