A court in Edinburgh yesterday denied a request by British national Zain Dean, convicted in Taiwan of killing a man while driving under the influence of alcohol, to be granted bail and deferred a bail bond hearing at the request of Dean’s attorney to next month.
The hearing is scheduled for Dec. 16, while the court asked the defendant and Scottish prosecutors to present new testimony before Dec. 12, according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stationed in the UK, who attended the hearing yesterday to monitor developments.
The court also scheduled hearings on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9 to rule on a request made by the Taiwanese government that Dean be extradited to Taiwan to face trial, the official added.
Because the UK has three levels of trial courts, the legal process to rule on the extradition request could be very lengthy, the official said, adding that Scottish prosecutors said experience has shown that it can take as long as two or three years to reach a final verdict in an extradition case.
Dean, chief executive of UK-based NCL Media’s Taiwan branch before fleeing Taiwan last year after his conviction, was arrested by Scottish police on Oct. 17 and was detained following a ruling by an Edinburgh court.
Dean fled Taiwan in August last year, shortly before he was due to begin serving a four-year prison term for the killing of a newspaper delivery man in downtown Taipei in 2010 while driving under the influence of alcohol.
Taiwanese prosecutors issued a warrant for Dean’s arrest in January.
Following his high-profile escape, in which Dean used a friend’s passport and makeup to disguise himself, the Ministry of Justice contacted British authorities through diplomatic channels to ask for assistance after the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office learned of his whereabouts.
Several rounds of negotiations eventually led to the signing of a memorandum of understanding last month specifically covering Dean’s extradition. It was signed by Chen Wen-chi (陳文琪), director of the Ministry of Justice’s Department of International and Cross-Strait Legal Affairs and British Home Office Director Tyson Hepple.
Commenting on the Edinburgh court’s latest ruling, Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) yesterday said he was gratified by the judges’ decision.
“I hope the judges will take into consideration the pain and suffering of the victim’s family, as well as Dean’s criminal act, and rule in favor of the extradition request,” Chen said.
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
RSS