In response to reports that the Executive Yuan had abolished a list of the nation’s 10 most-wanted fugitives, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said yesterday that the fugitives were still “wanted” and the Executive Yuan was simply handing the matter back to the ministry.
In 2003, the Executive Yuan listed the 10 most-wanted criminals who had escaped abroad. As much as NT$10 million (US$300,000) was offered to anybody who could provide clues to help authorities capture the fugitives.
The list includes white-collar criminals such as former Tuntex Group chairman Chen Yu-hao (陳由豪) and former An Feng Group (安峰集團) president Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄), both of whom embezzled tens of billions of NT dollars from Taiwanese investors and are currently suspected to be in China.
Since then, two of the fugitives have been captured, while one died last year, leaving seven on the list.
Deputy Minister of Justice Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) yesterday told a press conference that the seven were still wanted, but the responsibility for capturing the criminals had been returned to the ministry.
“We are still actively tracking the whereabouts of these seven criminals,” Huang said.
“We will track them down with the help of the cross-strait extradition agreement,” he said.
A pact signed on April 26 states that Taiwan and China have agreed to help each other probe and collect evidence, serve judicial documents and confirm each other’s civil judgments and arbitration awards.
Huang said that as it was the responsibility of crime-fighting agencies, such as the judiciary and police departments, to capture criminals — not the Executive Yuan — so the move was a “back to basics” measure.
The Investigation Bureau confirmed that the cash rewards had been lowered from NT$10 million to between NT$50,000 and NT$1 million, but it said bureau officials are no less determined to capture the remaining fugitives on the list.
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