The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a 12-year sentence for Chuang Yu-hsieng (莊育賢), who had been found guilty of strangling his girlfriend, surnamed Lee (李), at a motel in Taichung.
The verdict was the final ruling in the case.
Chuang had appealed the first ruling after a district court convicted him of manslaughter and sentenced him to 10 years and two months in prison.
The High Court in October last year then sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
In their ruling, the Supreme Court judges said that the sentence should be upheld because Chuang had not shown remorse for committing the crime, and he had not apologized to his girlfriend’s family, nor did he offer them financial compensation.
The couple had been living together and were reportedly planning to marry.
Chuang took Lee out on a car trip and they checked into a Taichung motel on July 18, 2018, investigators said.
The next morning they were seen arguing over breakfast.
Prosecutors said that Chuang at first denied the killing, saying that Lee had committed suicide.
After being presented with evidence, he later admitted to strangling Lee in a fit of anger, they said.
Minutes later, he found that she was still breathing, so he took a towel from the bathroom to strangle her to death, they cited him as saying.
Chuang dragged the body to the bathroom to clean it, then carried it to the car and drove along a highway between Taichung and Nantou County, looking for a place to dump it, but did not find a a suitable spot, investigators said.
Chuang checked into another motel later that night. The next day he crashed his car into a guard rail on Highway No. 6. Police arrived to find him in a nervous state.
He attempted to jump off the side of highway and kill himself, but police grabbed him first.
Police officers then discovered Lee’s body in the car’s trunk.
In another case, the Taipei District Court yesterday approved the detention of a Taipei City Motor Vehicles Office official surnamed Yuan (袁), after prosecutors began investigating him for corruption on Tuesday.
Yuan is accused of receiving bribes of NT$1.3 million (US$43,279) a year.
He reportedly colluded with businesses to enable drivers to pass the physical test for their drivers’ license, among other things.
Prosecutors have questioned six other people and carried out searches.
Yuan was detained along with businessman Lee Hung-chang (李宏章), while the other five were released on bail ranging from NT$100,000 to NT$250,000.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their
RSS