A former lawyer for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday testified that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) had attended at party at the Playboy Mansion when he was studying in the US.
Earlier this year, radio show host Clara Chou (周玉蔻) alleged that Lien lived a lavish lifestyle during his college years at Columbia University in New York, including attending at party at the Playboy Mansion.
Lien filed a slander suit against Chou in the Taipei District Court, asking for NT$5 million (US$166,000) in compensation and a public apology.
Song Yao-ming (宋耀明) was summoned to testify in court when Chou cited him as her source of information.
Song told the court that the KMT should not have encouraged Lien to enter politics.
“Between 1993 and 1994 Lien invited me to his apartment in the Trump Tower in New York, and he told me he went to the Playboy Mansion in California,” Song said.
“A few years ago I had a conversation with a senior journalist surnamed Tsai (蔡) and I told him that Lien and I were schoolmates at Columbia University’s law school between 1993 and 1994. I lived in an international house in Upper Manhattan, which cost about US$1,000 a month. I was shocked when I learned that Lien, who had just graduated from Fu Jen Catholic University, has a father who is a government official, but he could afford an apartment in Trump Tower,” Song said.
Song said Sean Lien, one of former vice president Lien Chan’s (連戰) sons, was absent from class for days. When Song later ran into him and asked him where he had been, Sean Lien told him he had been to the Playboy Mansion in California.
The court asked whether both sides would consider settling the case out of court. Sean Lien’s lawyer said he would discuss it with his client.
Song had represented Ma when he was charged with misusing his special mayoral allowance.
Sean Lien spokesman Chien Chen-yu (錢震宇) said the younger Lien is not familiar with Song and that he never attended a party at the Playboy Mansion.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS