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.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan has activated backup communications for its northernmost territory, the remote and strategically located island of Dongyin (東引), after poor weather conditions apparently shifted the wreckage of a ship onto an undersea cable causing it to break. The vulnerability of undersea communication cables linking Taiwan with its outlying islands has been a persistent cause of concern for Taipei, whose government has on several occasions blamed Chinese ships for intentionally causing damage. Dongyin, home to about 1,500 people, sits in a strategic position at the top of the Taiwan Strait and the island has a heavy military presence. It does not have an
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