Public prosecutors yesterday announced they would not indict former Kaohsiung Prison head warden Chen Shih-chih (陳世志) and former deputy warden Lai Cheng-jung (賴政榮), saying there was no evidence they were involved in the attempted jailbreak and hostage-taking by six inmates in February.
In the statement, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office also said it would not indict the six inmates, who overpowered security guards and officials to seize firearms and took hostages during the 14-hour standoff on Feb. 11 and Feb. 12, since the six had died during the incident, allegedly by committing suicide by shooting themselves in the head.
Prosecutors investigated speculation that top prison officials might have colluded by providing inside help to the six inmates, who were headed by Cheng Li-te (鄭立德), the alleged leader of a Kaohsiung chapter of the Bamboo Union (竹聯幫) gang, who was serving a 28-and-a-half-year sentence for murder and other crimes.
The probe focused on Chen and Lai, since the two were taken hostage and later acquiesced to the convicts’ demands by ordering subordinates to dispatch two police cruisers to the facility as getaway cars.
The prosecutors’ statement said Chen and Lai “were physically confined as hostages and under threat by Cheng and rest of his gang, who were carrying firearms ... and under the violent threats and dangerous conditions, they were forced to call to arrange for the police cruisers.”
“Under such circumstances, it was difficult to adjudicate whether the two officials had violated the law, in dereliction of their official duties, by providing aid or allowing incarcerated inmates to escape,” the statement said.
The decision not to prosecute also rested on the probe’s conclusion that no unusual financial transactions were found in bank accounts belonging to Chen and Lai, and there were no transfers of money from other prison officials, the hostage-taking inmates or their families and relatives.
Records from 84 bank accounts from 55 banks and financial institutions were investigated, the statement said.
However, the prosecutors said there was negligence by Chen and Lai, especially concerning their lax management of the prison’s armory and the ease with which the inmates were able to seize firearms.
Both officials were disciplined by Ministry of Justice’s Agency of Corrections. They were both demoted, removed from their posts and given major demerits.
The statement said that since prosecutors have examined the evidence and witness’ testimonies and determined the inmates had committed suicide, they would not be indicted.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai