A grandson of former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) yesterday denied charges that he threatened to harm the Taipei American School (TAS), the students and members of its faculty.
During a hearing at the Shilin District Court in Taipei, Andrew Chiang (蔣友青) said he never had any intention of intimidating TAS or using illegal means to deal with a conflict he had with the school.
A former TAS student who transferred to another school in 2006, Andrew Chiang was indicted on Nov. 28 after allegedly making threatening comments against the school, especially its deputy superintendent, via Facebook and e-mail, between August and last month.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Prosecutors said an investigation showed that over the past two years, the 23-year-old had created loud noise disturbances several times on the school campus in protest against what he called unfair treatment by the school’s deputy superintendent while he was a student there.
On Aug. 21, he turned to Facebook to voice his anger, writing status updates in which he threatened to “slaughter” the school, prosecutors said.
He also sent e-mails from his home to the school’s deputy superintendent threatening to “spoil his life and throw him into jail,” they said.
In one of his Facebook posts, Andrew Chiang described himself as a terrorist and said he hated TAS and believes that the school killed his uncle.
Andrew Chiang’s lawyer said during the hearing that the Facebook posts were mostly expressions of emotions and that some were merely lyrics of pop songs.
Andrew Chiang did not directly mention the school in his posts or circulate the posts publicly, his lawyer said.
Andrew Chiang is the youngest of three sons of Chiang Hsiao-yung (蔣孝勇), who died of cancer in 1996 at the age of 48. Chiang Hsiao-yung was the youngest of three sons of Chiang Ching-kuo, who died in 1988 aged 77.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS