President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) called yesterday for the signing of an extradition treaty between Taiwan and the US to expedite the return of dozens of fugitives who have fled to the US.
Such a treaty is necessary, especially after Taiwan signed a similar agreement with China in April to combat crime, setting the stage for closer cooperation between the two sides on crime fighting and prevention, he said.
Taiwan signed an agreement on combating crime during the cross-strait talks held in Nanjing in April. The pact allows both sides to make joint efforts in the extradition of wanted criminals, Ma said, calling on the US to sign an extradition treaty with Taiwan as soon as possible.
“Friends in the US think that the country should speed up the process,” Ma said at the Presidential Office when meeting representatives from the US’ National Association of Attorney Generals (NAAG), led by Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning.
Ma said he had made the same appeal when members of the NAAG visited him last year.
On Taiwan’s most-wanted-from-the-US list is Huang Fang-yen (黃芳彥), former deputy superintendent of the Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital and a close family friend of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who fled to the US last year before prosecutors could question him about allegations that he helped the former first family launder money.
Other major fugitives in the US include Wang You-theng (王又曾), founder of the Rebar Asia Pacific Group, who allegedly looted large amounts of funds from the group, and Ching Chi-ju (金紀玖), the middleman in a US$30 million scandal involving an abortive attempt to win over Papua New Guinea as a diplomatic ally.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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