A merchant ship captain was granted bail at the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday after returning earlier in the day from Panama, where he had been imprisoned for the last five years after being accused and convicted of murder.
Duanmu Wei-kai (端木惟鍇), who was repatriated by Panama on Wednesday, was free to return to his home in Taichung City after his family members paid NT$100,000 (US$3,289) in bail.
As he left the prosecutors office, the 72-year-old former captain declared his innocence and said he would accept the results of a court trial in Taiwan.
Duanmu, a veteran of the Republic of China navy, was the captain of the Panama-registered H.V. Well Pescadores bulk carrier, owned by Taipei-based Shih Wei Navigation Co, when it was sailing from the Dominican Republic to Houston, Texas, in March 2003.
As the ship prepared to enter Houston’s harbor, several crewmen discovered five Dominican stowaways hiding in the boat. The stowaways were sent off the ship and left to fend for themselves at sea on two flat wooden rafts.
Two of the stowaways, however, were later found drowned, while three others were arrested.
The captain, the first officer and 11 crewmen were detained by US authorities, but because the crime took place on the high seas aboard a Panamanian ship, they were extradited to Panama for trial.
Duanmu has always insisted that he was not aware of the incident until after the fact. At the trial and in communications with his family, the captain said the crewmen told him the stowaways had asked to be set free.
The stowaways testified that they were thrown off the ship.
The Panamanian court favored the stowaways testimony, convicting Duanmu of murder and sentencing him to 19-and-a-half years in prison in September 2005.
Since then, Taiwan’s foreign ministry has worked to have the elderly captain repatriated back to Taiwan for trial, a request the Panamanian government finally agreed to on Wednesday.
Starbucks Taiwan’s decision to charge for drink customization, which had been free, has sparked consumer backlash, highlighting the challenge of raising prices without making customers feel they are losing value, experts said. Since Oct. 12, customers who order drinks with less or no ice and ask to have the volume topped up with milk or other liquid have been charged an additional NT$15. Topping off drinks without ice was previously free, and disgruntled customers posted photos on social media showing that iced drinks ordered without ice were only half full if the extra NT$15 was not paid. The posts drew tens of thousands
EXPLANATION: Tsai said he attended events featuring various interviewees to observe them firsthand as part of his interview research Television host Kevin Tsai (蔡康永) last night broke his silence over a controversy surrounding his appearance at a campaign event for Democratic Progressive Party Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen (沈伯洋), saying he had never supported Taiwan independence. “I have always hoped for friendly cross-strait relations. I have never supported Taiwan independence,” Tsai wrote in a post on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo. Tsai, who has hosted television shows in China, attended the opening of Shen’s campaign headquarters on Oct. 4, drawing criticism from Chinese social media users and prompting some Chinese companies to distance themselves from him. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office
The husband of a Taiwanese woman stabbed to death at a hotel in Japan has been detained on suspicion of entering into a sham marriage and taking out high-value insurance policies in her name, Tainan prosecutors said today. A woman surnamed Ching (井), 38, was killed on Monday last week at a tourist hotel in Fujikawaguchiko, Japan. A Taiwanese woman surnamed Yang (楊) was arrested by Japanese police on suspicion of murder, Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office deputy chief prosecutor Wang Sheng-hao (王聖豪) said. Investigators suspect that Ching's new husband, surnamed Lee (李), 29, arranged a sham marriage, encouraged her to travel to Japan
Vietnamese budget carrier VietJet Air launched a new route yesterday between Tainan and Hanoi, becoming the third international route offered out of the southern Taiwan airport. Tainan Deputy Mayor Yeh Tse-shan (葉澤山) greeted passengers on the inaugural inbound flight from Hanoi, while noting that all 230 seats on the outbound flight had sold out. Flights on the route, which use the Airbus 321, will be offered four times weekly, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. According to VietJet, the flights will depart Hanoi at 7:50 am and arrive in Tainan at 11:10 am The return
RSS