Taipei prosecutors yesterday said they are investigating whether Taipei police officers were involved in distributing sex photographs and videos allegedly taken by Justin Lee (李宗瑞), who has been accused of committing sexual crimes.
Lee, a socialite wanted for allegedly drugging and raping several celebrities and other women and filming the acts, turned himself in to prosecutors on Thursday evening after spending more than three weeks on the run.
He was taken into custody following a hearing at the Taipei District Court.
Some of the photographs, believed to be stills taken from the videos, were found posted on the Internet shortly after Lee went on the run.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday that prosecutors have discovered that a Taipei police officer surnamed Chen (陳), who was on the task force dealing with Lee’s case, allegedly went to Lee’s father, former Yuanta Financial Holdings board member Lee Yueh-tsang (李岳蒼), and attempted to blackmail him with the photographs and videos.
Because Lee Yueh-tsang rejected the blackmail, the materials were then posted on the Internet, the Apple Daily reported.
Huang Ming-chao (黃明昭), chief of the Taipei City Police Department’s criminal police section, said yesterday he made a phone call to Lee Yueh-tsang in which the latter denied the media report that police officers had tried to blackmail him.
Meanwhile, Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Huang Mo-hsin (黃謀信) said he has no comment on the Apple Daily story, adding only that prosecutors are investigating the case.
During the district court hearing, 27-year-old Justin Lee denied the accusations made against him, saying his sexual activities had all been consensual and that he did not secretly film the acts or circulate any photographs and videos of him engaging in sexual acts with women.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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