Olympic gold medal winner in taekwondo, Chu Mu-yen (
Police said Chu started receiving phone calls from a criminal group on April 24, demanding he pay them NT$3 million or they would do him and his family harm.
Chu said that he paid NT$1.1 million on April 29, but he was cheated because the criminals continued to threaten him.
Chu told police that stones were thrown at his parents' house in Taoyuan on Saturday morning, breaking windows. He reported the matter to the police because his parents were frightened, he said.
Some Chinese-language newspapers speculated yesterday why Chu did not report the case to the police in the first place. They said Chu might have been blackmailed because he went to a hostess bar and owed the establishment a lot of money.
The newspapers said Chu might have had sex with a bar girl and was then threatened to make him pay more money.
Police yesterday said they did not know whether Chu was cheated in a hostess bar, but they are investigating the matter.
Chu yesterday denied to reporters that he was cheated and threatened in a hostess bar and said, "I never went to a hostess bar and I paid the money for my family's security."
Chu told police that at least three people have been calling him -- a woman, a man who speaks fluent Taiwanese and a man that appeared to be from Hong Kong.
Police said that Chu received a NT$10 million reward from the nation for winning a gold medal in last year's Athens Olympics, and the criminal group therefore probably knew he had a large amount of money.
Chu and Chen Shih-hsin (陳詩欣) won two of the country's first Olympic gold medals in the taekwondo competition during the Athens Games.
Chu is a graduate student at the National College of Physical Education and Sports.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
STAY COOL: The HPA recommended that people stay hydrated, use air-conditioning or fans while indoors, wear loose-fitting clothes and walk in the shade while outdoors Employers must implement measures such as installing cooling equipment, and providing drinking water and rest breaks for outdoor workers starting from Monday next week, the Taipei Department of Labor said on Sunday. Employers who fail to comply could face fines of NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法), the department said. Businesses in Taipei employing fewer than 100 workers, as well as registered self-employed workers with labor insurance coverage, could receive on-site assessments and guidance from occupational safety consultants to help them apply for central government subsidies to implement or improve heat-protection measures, it said. Under the Ministry of
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS