The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday summoned witnesses in cases involving alleged fraud and embezzlement that implicate social activist and former chief executive of alternative media outlet Watchout Co Liulin Wei (柳林瑋).
Liulin was accused by the Citizen 1985 Alliance of having misappropriated funds to the tune of NT$300,000 (US$9,693) that it raised from donations to a social movement calling for justice following the death of 24-year-old army Corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) in 2013.
Hung died of heatstroke after being forced to do strenuous exercise in a confinement facility.
The death raised questions of human rights violations in the military, sparked mass protests, led to the prosecution of several military officials and was the catalyst for major legal reforms.
Citizen 1985 on Wednesday took legal action against Liulin, one of the activist organization’s founders, accusing him of raising funds in the name of the alliance without authorization and then seizing the funds for personal use.
Watchout dismissed Liulin on Friday last week after discovering that he had remitted NT$2 million of public money to his personal bank account without authorization.
According to Watchout, Liulin had remitted the funds back to the company’s bank account and confessed that he had made a major financial mistake.
Taipei district prosecutors summoned Watchout spokesperson Lin Tzu-yi (林祖儀) and two other company executives for questioning yesterday.
Lin told reporters after the questioning that the prosecutors had asked them about 20 questions, ranging from the reason Watchout was established and the company’s financial sources to details of how the company’s funds were used.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard