The three US nationals allegedly involved in the gruesome murder of a Canadian citizen after a drug-related dispute were yesterday notified of the details of the indictment in court.
They were also denied bail in a separate hearing last night, as they are considered to be a flight risk and because of the severe circumstances of the case.
As the indictment documents are written in Chinese, the suspects’ lawyers would translate them into English, while interpreters would be present at the hearings, New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Lin Hung-sung (林宏松) told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Photo: Wang Ting-chuan, Taipei Times
Prosecutors on Thursday charged Israeli-American Oren Shlomo Mayer, 37, and American Odane Bent, 30, with the murder and dismemberment of Canadian Sanjay Ryan Ramgahan, whose body was found on a riverbank under Zhongzheng Bridge in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District (永和) on Aug. 22.
Bent was arrested on Aug. 25, while Mayer fled the country after the murder.
He was arrested in an apartment in Cainta in the Philippines on Sept. 5 and was sent back to Taiwan on Sept. 17.
Prosecutors have requested that the court hand Mayer the heaviest punishment possible, as evidence points to him as being the mastermind behind the plot, Lin said.
Two alleged accomplices, American Jason Hobbie, 46, and Taiwanese Wu Hsuan (吳宣), 21, also known as Dan Wu, were arrested and questioned by police in October, and were charged with aiding and abetting, the Central News Agency reported.
Mayer allegedly instructed Hobbie and Wu to purchase knives, fireworks and gasoline for the murder, and they might have helped to destroy evidence after the killing on Aug. 21.
“We are on solid ground regarding the indictment, having gathered sufficient evidence of their involvement in the killing,” Lin said, referring to telephone conversations, Line messages, surveillance footage and GPS records on the suspects’ cellphones, which pinpointed their locations on the night of the incident.
Investigators said that all five men knew each other, and that Ramgahan and Mayer were selling cannabis.
Prosecutors said that Mayer might have suspected that Ramgahan had become a police informant, as several cannabis buyers had been arrested.
Ramgahan allegedly wanted to quit the drug business and was not willing to share his list of clients, prosecutors said.
Charges are also pending against the four suspects for the sale and possession of cannabis, but it would be a separate case, Lin said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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