The lawyer for a suspect in the murder of Canadian Sanjay Ryan Ramgahan in New Taipei City last week yesterday said that his client was not at the scene of the crime and did not act as a lookout for the other two suspects, whom authorities have identified as US citizens.
Wu Hsuan (吳宣) — who was on Monday again summoned for questioning by prosecutors — did not witness the murder, does not know how it took place and was not a lookout, Chen Ke-yu (陳克譽) said.
Wu, 21, who is also known as Dan by his friends, was summoned for questioning by New Taipei City prosecutors based on evidence that he purchased two machetes, a wire saw and a whetstone allegedly used by the two Americans, who are suspected of killing and dismembering Ramgahan on a river embankment in Yonghe District (永和) early on Tuesday last week.
Wu, who has dual Taiwanese-Canadian citizenship and works at a nightclub, was released on bail of NT$300,000, but has been prohibited from leaving Taiwan.
One of the Americans, 30-year-old Ewart Bent, was detained and his communications restricted after a bail hearing on Sunday.
New Taipei City police have identified the other main suspect as Oren Mayer, a 37-year-old Israeli-American who also uses the name “Oz Diamond.”
Mayer reportedly came to Taiwan in 2015 for university studies and later became an English-language teacher and a tattoo artist, running DC Tattoos in Taipei.
According to his social media profile, Mayer served his compulsory military service with the Israel Defense Forces from 1999 to 2001, and later moved to the US, where he obtained a degree at California State University, Los Angeles.
Police said that surveillance footage and other evidence confirmed that Mayer early on Thursday last week departed on a flight to Manila from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
Authorities said they have been in talks with their Philippine counterparts to extradite Mayer back to Taiwan.
The evidence suggests that Mayer and Bent used the wire saw to strangle Ramgahan and then dismembered him with the machetes, Yonghe Police Precinct Investigation Division head Lin Chen-jui (林振瑞) said.
According to social media, Bent had also taught English at cram schools in Taiwan after serving in the US Marine Corps in Okinawa, Japan.
Records indicated that Bent stayed at Mayer’s tattoo parlor when he arrived in Taiwan.
Footage released by police shows the two Americans walking down nearby streets at about 1:45am on Wednesday last week, immediately after the murder.
The killing was reportedly motivated by disputes over marijuana sales.
Ramgahan, who was allegedly a police informant, and the two Americans were reportedly known to police for prior involvement with illegal drugs.
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.
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
Taiwan next year plans to launch its first nationwide census on elderly people living independently to identify the estimated 700,000 seniors to strengthen community-based healthcare and long-term care services, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said on the sidelines of a healthcare seminar that the nation’s rapidly aging population and declining birthrate have made the issue of elderly people living alone increasingly pressing. The survey, to be jointly conducted by the MOHW and the Ministry of the Interior, aims to establish baseline data and better allocate care resources, he
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