Lee Tai-an (李泰安), convicted of involvement in a South Link railway train derailment, was sentenced yesterday to 13 years in jail by the Taiwan High Court’s Kaohsiung branch.
Yesterday’s ruling was the third verdict for Lee, who can still appeal the case to the Supreme Court. In Lee’s first and second trials, he was was sentenced to life imprisonment and 18 years in prison by the Pingtung District Court and the Taiwan High Court’s Kaohsiung branch, respectively.
The ruling yesterday said Lee Tai-an and his brother Lee Shuang-chuan (李雙全), who committed suicide on March 23, 2006, as investigators began suspecting his involvement in the train derailment, conspired to destroy railway infrastructure and murder Chen Hong-chen (陳氏紅琛), the Vietnamese spouse of Lee Shuang-chuan.
The ruling said Lee Shuang-chuan had been the primary perpetrator, while Lee Tai-an was an accessory, so the court decided to reduce his sentence. The court found Lee Tai-an guilty of murder, destruction of railway infrastructure, endangering passenger safety and illegitimately collecting insurance payouts after Chen’s death.
Chen did not die in the train derailment — she was murdered, the ruling said. The incident occurred on March 17, 2006, when an express train traveling from Taitung to Kaohsiung derailed in Pingtung County. Among the passengers on the train were Lee Shuang-chuan — a Taiwan Railway Administration employee — and his wife.
Chen died in hospital after the derailment, but prosecutors became suspicious after they discovered that Lee Shuang-chuan had taken out a NT$20 million (US$624, 498) life insurance policy on his wife, which covered accidental death, a few days prior to the derailment.
The ruling said Chen had first been injected with Etumine, a strong sedative mainly administered to patients with mental illnesses, and then with snake poison, by Lee Shuang-chuan before she boarded the train. She was injected with an additional poison after being admitted to the hospital.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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