The Supreme Court yesterday upheld an earlier ruling in which Taipei Prison inmate Kuo Yi-fan (郭亦凡) was sentenced to an addtional four years and six months in prison for stabbing his cellmate in the face and blinding him.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court said that Kuo, 34, had responded extremely to a minor squabble, and he should have known that stabbing the pointed end of a pen into a person’s eye would do serious harm.
When the attack occurred in June 2018, Kuo was serving a sentence for a narcotics conviction.
After the initial ruling, Kuo kept appealing the decision, as he believed the sentence was too harsh. He wanted to pay the victim compensation, but he and his family could not come up with the money, so his appeals were rejected.
Meanwhile, prosecutors on Monday indicted six people over the beating to death of an inmate surnamed Chen (陳) in Kaohsiung Prison.
Chen had allegedly been quarreling with other inmates for some time, and in October last year, four of them beat him up, prosecutors said, adding that two prison guards were also involved.
Chen was taken to a local hospital, but died shortly afterwards.
Prison guards reported that Chen was ill and became unconscious, but medical examiners found that he had ruptured internal organs, broken bones and numerous bruises, prosecutors said.
Charges in the case range from document forgery to physical assault resulting in death.
In another court ruling, the High Court on Tuesday upheld former Hsinchu City councilor Lee Huang Chin-yen’s (李黃錦燕) four-year sentence for corruption.
Investigators found that while in office, Lee, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), had over 10 years forged records and financial receipts so that she could pocket wages intended for office assistants.
She reportedly collected NT$10 million (US$333,267 at the current exchange rate) in total.
Initially a district court sentenced her to 10 years in prison.
After that, the case went to the High Court, which found guilty and sentenced to eight years in prison, but she was later acquitted.
After another retrial, she was sentenced to four years in prison.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
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