The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday evening that it is trying to confirm the date of a sentencing hearing for a Taiwanese diplomat detained on labor fraud charges in the US. The ministry was responding to a report in the Kansas City Star that the court had settled on a hearing date before the Lunar New Year holiday next month.
Spokesman James Chang (章計平) said the ministry was still trying to confirm the report because it had not been notified of any decision by the federal court in the Western District of Missouri as of Tuesday evening.
Jacqueline Liu (劉姍姍), -director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Kansas City, pleaded guilty on Nov. 18 to charges of underpaying and overworking her two Philippine housekeepers and paid US$80,044.62 in restitution to the two victims.
However, that plea bargain was not accepted by Judge Greg Kays, who said he wanted to review the customary pre-sentence report before passing sentence, a process that can take about three months to complete.
In addition to the restitution covered under the terms of the plea agreement, the 64-year-old, who has been detained since she was arrested by FBI agents on Nov. 10, is expected to be sentenced to time served and -deported immediately.
The Kansas City Star reported on Tuesday that “in an order issued [on] Tuesday, Kays said he was prepared to schedule the hearing on Jan. 18, but could be persuaded to hold it earlier if the housekeepers could be properly notified.”
Lawyer James Wirken, who represents Liu, asked for a sentencing hearing “as soon as possible,” noting that the federal prosecutor on the case had no objection to an earlier sentencing date, the paper reported.
“At this juncture, there is no reason to wait any longer to sentence the defendant, and to proceed with proper deportation proceedings after sentencing,” Wirken was quoted as saying.
According to the paper, Wirken said in his motion that Liu has been held in solitary confinement since her guilty plea on Nov. 18 and she had developed certain health issues since being in jail, including soreness and swelling of the gums and the skin around her mouth.
The case sparked a dispute between Taiwan and the US over the application of diplomatic immunity. Taiwan argued that Liu should be granted immunity, while the US said her immunity applied only to acts performed within the scope of her authorized functions.
Additional reporting by CNA
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift