The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a 20-year prison sentence imposed by a lower court on a man charged with attempted bombings of a High Speed Rail train and a lawmaker’s office more than two years ago.
Hu Tsung-hsien (胡宗賢), a lawyer, was convicted in his first retrial by the Taiwan High Court on two counts of attempted murder for making bombs and planting two on a train traveling north from Taichung and two outside Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Chia-chen’s (盧嘉辰) office in New Taipei City.
An accomplice, Chu Ya-tung (朱亞東), was also found guilty and given a prison sentence of 10 years and six months.
The Supreme Court’s decisions cannot be appealed.
The Taiwan High Court revoked an earlier ruling it made in which Hu was found guilty of additional charges of forgery and obstruction of public utilities.
That ruling came with a 22-year sentence for Hu, while Chu was given 12 years.
The Taiwan High Court ruled that Hu had Chu had planted two suitcase bombs on the train and another two outside Lu’s office on April 12, 2013, in a convoluted scheme to manipulate the stock market.
Beyond wanting to cash in on the stock market, Hu also planned the bombings in anger at being indicted in February 2013 on charges of extortion and leaking private information, the court said.
Hu and Chu, who are both in their 40s, fled to China’s Guangdong Province after planting the bombs, but were found and arrested with the help of the Chinese authorities.
The two were repatriated on April 15, 2013.
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