Police in Taipei's Shihlin district announced yesterday they had finally solved a high-profile robbery at the home of the daughter of Shin Kong Group founder Wu Ho-su (吳火獅), and that four suspects -- the right ones this time, they insisted -- have been arrested.
The arrests in the case follow a fierce controversy over the original detention of four youths following the robbery in late March at the Yangmingshan home of Wu Ju-yueh (
During the robbery, Wu's residence was burgled by four masked men, who then made off with around NT$1.3 million in valuables.
PHOTO: LI HUNG-MING
Because of the prominence of the family, Taipei City's Criminal Investigation Corps (台北市刑警大隊), Criminal Investigation Bureau and the police station in Shihlin immediately set up a special task force to investigate the robbery.
Police then arrested four teenage suspects, which they said was based on surveillance tapes at Wu's house that had recorded the thieves in action.
All four reportedly confessed to the robbery during questioning. However, physical evidence collected at the scene failed to match with any of the suspects they had taken into custody.
Allegations have also been raised since then that the four were abused or intimidated during the four days they were kept in custody in order to extract the confessions.
The group is to hold a news conference tomorrow along with their lawyers to press their case against police.
Shihlin police have refused to comment on the allegations.
Police, meanwhile, said yesterday that from the way the robbery was conducted and by tracing the signals of the cellular phone stolen from Wu's home, they were able to track down the men they now believe were responsible.
They said one had been jailed in 1993 for a burglary at the residence of Huang Chi-chuan (
They said the four have confessed to four other robberies, but according to the police's preliminary investigation, the group has been involved in at least 20 robberies.
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