Police yesterday summoned Lee Tai-an (李泰安), the elder brother of deceased train derailment suspect Lee Shuang-chuan (李雙全), for questioning over his alleged involvement in the March train crash in Pingtung.
Lee Tai-an was summoned by Kaohsiung prosecutors from his home in Taitung yesterday but was later transferred to the Paowu Police Division of Jenwu Township (仁武) in Kaohsiung County for further questioning.
Lee Tai-an and his lawyer Wu Han-cheng (吳漢成) took the train to Kaohsiung but declined to answer questions during the journey.
Lee Tai-an is a defendant in the investigation, while his wife Wu Chun-fang (吳春芳), his neighbors and Lee Shuang-chuan's ex-girlfriend were all summoned as witnesses.
All of them apart from Lee Tai-an had been released. Last night at about 10pm, the prosecutor filed for request to detain Lee Tai-an. Result of which is yet know at press time.
Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office Spokesman Chung Chung-hsiao (鍾忠孝) said yesterday that prosecutors had information regarding Lee Tai-an's whereabouts before the crash as well as the second post mortem examination results of Chen Hong-chen (陳氏紅琛), the deceased Vietnamese spouse of Lee Shuang-chuan.
Prosecutors also have copies of Lee Tai-an's telephone records on the day of the incident, Chung said. Lee Tai-an's residence was searched yesterday and his car confiscated.
The accident occurred on March 17, when an express train traveling westbound from Taitung to Kaohsiung derailed. The passengers aboard that train included Lee Shuang-chuan, who was a Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) employee, and his Vietnamese wife. Chen died in hospital after the derailment but prosecutors became suspicious after they discovered Lee Shuang-chuan had taken out a NT$20 million (US$625,000) life insurance policy on his wife, which covered accidental death, a few days before the derailment.
Prosecutors then discovered that Chen had been poisoned with a "rare substance," which they suspect had been administered before she boarded the train. Investigators suspect that Lee Shuang-chen may have poisoned his wife and deliberately caused the train to derail to mask her murder. However, prosecutors have not revealed what kind of poison killed Chen.
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