At an appeal hearing at the Taiwan High Court (台灣高等法院) yesterday the convictions were upheld of a husband and wife pair who hijacked a tourist bus last year. They were sentenced to prison terms of four years and three years and two months respectively.
The couple, Chuang Pao-yun (莊寶雲) and her husband Chang Wen-liang (張文亮), hijacked a tourist bus and held 14 people hostage in Taipei on June 23.
After they were arrested at the scene, Chuang claimed that both she and her husband suffered mental problems. Investigators later discovered that health records about their "mental problems" were fake.
Taiwanese law allows persons who are convicted of a range of criminal offenses, including hijacking, and are deemed to suffer from mental illness, to be detained in mental health institutions rather than prison.
According to the verdict, both Chuang and Chang were convicted of the offense of hijacking a vehicle used for public transportation. Chuang was also convicted of forgery for using a third person's health insurance card and making fake health records to claim that both she and her husband had mental problems.
Under the Criminal Code (刑法), "serious" offenses of hijacking vessels or vehicles used for public transportation is punishable with prison terms not shorter than five years, but "less serious" offenses are punishable with imprisonment not longer than three years.
During their first trial at the Shihlin District Court (士林地方法院) on Nov. 13, Chang was sentenced to five years and Chuang received four years and two months.
Both Chang and Chuang may still appeal to the Supreme Court (
"Usually, it takes 10 business days for court clerks to process the verdict," said Tsai Kuo-tsai (蔡國在), a spokesman for the Taiwan High Court.
"Within 10 days, copies of the verdict will be sent to the defendants. The defendants will have another 10 days, starting from the day after they receive the verdict, to decide whether to appeal or not.
"Once the defendants decide to appeal, the case will be transferred to the Supreme Court," he said.
The spokesman did not explain why Chuang's prison sentence is shorter than her husband's.
On June 23, the couple boarded the Taipei-bound highway bus in Chupei, Hsinchu County, hijacked the bus in Taoyuan County and used a homemade handgun to take the bus driver and 13 passengers hostage, sparking a four-hour confrontation with the police in Taipei City. The offenders and their hostages were unharmed in the incident.
Chang and Chuang had a list of grievances against the government and judiciary. They hijacked the bus to bolster their demand to see Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
To end the standoff, a police SWAT team fired concussion grenades into the bus as Chuang opened the door in an attempt to reach Chen. Officers then stormed the bus and overpowered the hijackers, taking them into custody.
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