The Taipei District Court yesterday rejected the prosecution's request to detain a former agent of the Investigation Bureau who was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly sending threatening mails to the first family and a number of legislators and government officials.
Yang Ching-hai (楊清海), 58, was released last night on NT$100,000 bail. He was arrested on Tuesday at his residence in Taipei County, where police also found two pistols and 45 bullets.
Police said that Yang had sent a postcard threatening to sexually assault President Chen Shui-bian's (
Taipei District Prosecutors' Office spokesman Lin Ching-tsun (
Yang's girlfriend, Ting Yi-chih (
Lin said Yang and Ting would be charged with threatening and obstructing a person's safety. Yang would also be charged with violating the Guns, Explosives and Knives Control Act.
Police said that in addition to threatening the first family, since 2005 Yang had also sent threatening letters to Ministry of Education Secretary-General Chuang Kuo-rong (莊國榮) and more than 30 legislators, elected officials and government officials.
They said Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
Approached by reporters on his way from a jail in Taipei to the prosecutors' office, Yang denied threatening the president, but acknowledged having sent the parcels containing bullets.
"I just wanted lawmakers to do more for the public," he said. "Lawmakers and media are the two sources of chaos in society."
The bureau said in a statement on Tuesday that Yang left his job at the bureau in 1988 and that it had no information about his activities since that time.
Prosecutors said late last night they had filed an appeal for Yang's detention.
Additional reporting by CNA and AP
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
NEGOTIATIONS: The US response to the countermeasures and plans Taiwan presented has been positive, including boosting procurement and investment, the president said Taiwan is included in the first group for trade negotiations with the US, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he seeks to shield Taiwanese exporters from a 32 percent tariff. In Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that he would speak to his Taiwanese and Israeli counterparts yesterday about tariffs after holding a long discussion with the Vietnamese earlier. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday postponed punishing levies on multiple trade partners, including Taiwan, for three months after trillions of US dollars were wiped off global markets. He has maintained a 10 percent
RSS