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.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai