The New Taipei City (新北市) Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted Hu Tsung-hsien (胡宗賢) and Chu Ya-tung (朱亞東) over their suspected roles in a failed bombing attempt on a high-speed rail train in April and asked for the heaviest punishment possible.
Both Hu and Chu are being indicted on charges of attempted murder, attempted arson and forgery.
Prosecutors claim that Hu’s motives were not simply to express his dissatisfaction with society, adding that he also attempted to gain personal profit from short-selling various stocks prior to the attempted attack.
Hu spent a lot of time looking up Clostridium botulinum (a toxin-producing bacterium) and how to remotely detonate explosive devices using a mobile phone, prosecutors said.
The indictment said that Hu, with Chu’s aid, placed explosive devices on northbound high-speed rail train No. 616 as well as outside the Tucheng District (土城), New Taipei City, constituency office of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Chia-chen (盧嘉辰).
Prosecutors further charged Hu with giving suitcases containing explosives to Lu’s office in the name of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) saying they were to be given to Hon Hai Group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘).
Prosecutors discovered that after Hu had allegedly placed the explosive devices on the high-speed train, he used the Internet to place an order to short-sell 500 shares.
All four bombs failed to explode due to either mishandling on Chu’s part or design flaws, prosecutors said.
The two suspects fled Taiwan and flew to China after allegedly planting the explosive devices. Chinese authorities — with the aid of facial recognition software — apprehended the pair in Guangdong on April 14 and repatriated them to Taiwan on April 16.
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