The Taipei District Court last night released former Eastern Multimedia chairman Gary Wang (王令麟) on NT$350 million (US$10.3 million) bail.
At the request of the Taiwan High Court, the district court yesterday reheard prosecutors’ request to keep Wang in detention.
Wang cried as he told the court that he had never once thought of absconding.
“The Bureau of Investigation’s information that I would flee to China via Penghu was false, and this information damaged my credibility and upset me,” Wang told the court. “My bail money came from my relatives, friends and coworkers. I will not leave debt behind. My mother is more than 80 years old and needs to be accompanied to the hospital regularly. I shall not leave her alone.”
Wang said he would agree to wear an electronic tag if he were granted bail again.
Wang’s lawyer Hsu Wen-bin (許文彬) urged the court to grant bail by citing the Bureau of Investigation’s surveillance record.
“The record shows that Wang stuck to his regular routine from the first day of his bail. There is insufficient evidence of any urgent need to detain him,” Hsu said.
Former Non-Partisan Solidarity Union legislator Tsai Hau (蔡豪) was summoned as a witness in yesterday’s hearing, as prosecutors had speculated that he might try to help Wang escape.
Tsai said law enforcement personnel had failed to seek confirmation for their tip-offs.
Wang was detained for a second time after a short hearing on Jan. 21, which came after the Bureau of Investigation said it had received a tip that he was planning to abscond via Penghu.
Wang was first taken into custody in June 2007 following the exposure of the Rebar Group’s financial woes.
He was released in May last year on NT$350 million (US$10.3 million) bail. On Dec. 31 last year, the district court sentenced Wang to 18 years in jail and fined him NT$700 million.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS