A plea bargain in return for a lighter sentence would be the best legal option for a Taiwanese high-school student accused of making terrorist threats in the US, famed Taiwanese-American forensic scientist Henry Lee (李昌鈺) said yesterday in Taipei.
Lee, who is visiting Taiwan to discuss crime fighting efforts in the 21st century with local law enforcement officials, told reporters that 18-year-old Sun An-tso (孫安佐) should seek to avoid standing trial by entering a plea bargain.
Sun was arrested on March 26 on charges of making terroristic threats against his Pennsylvania high school, and was later charged with possessing instruments of crime.
Photo: CNA
His lawyer Robert Keller said Sun has waived his right to a preliminary hearing and would likely plead guilty to the first charge in the hope that the district attorney’s office will drop the second one.
Sun’s case could be resolved more easily if the two charges were uncoupled, Lee said.
If Sun pleads guilty, his attorney can negotiate with the district attorney’s office and the judge for a lighter sentence, focusing on a lack of real intent by Sun to carry out his threat and a harmless interest in guns and video games, Lee said.
“If everything went well for Sun, he might even be able to have his criminal record expunged in the future,” Lee said.
Sun faces a formal arraignment hearing on May 23.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS