A US citizen accused of sexual assault of a minor in Texas has been arrested and is to be deported to the US, investigation and immigration officials said yesterday.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau last night said it had arrested Cody Wilson at a hotel in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華).
Following an official notification yesterday by the US government that Wilson’s US passport has been revoked and that he is a wanted fugitive, local law enforcement agencies stepped up their manhunt and apprehended him at Your Hotel.
Wilson did not use an alias and was registered under his own name at the hotel, the bureau said.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) said that police found Wilson at the hotel and when asked, admitted his name was Cody Wilson.
He did not resist arrest, it said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) confirmed that Wilson arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Sept. 6 on a flight from Los Angeles.
Taipei police said Wilson first stayed at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), where he was booked for three days, but for unknown reason, checked out the following day.
Investigators said Wilson apparently checked an online rental site in Taiwan and signed a lease to rent an apartment suite for six months on Taipei’s Nanchang Street.
On Wednesday he paid a deposit and a month’s rent for the apartment, reports said.
The rental agency was to meet Wilson yesterday at about noon to hand over the keys to the apartment, but he did not show up, likely due to local media reports that he was wanted in the US, police said.
As of press time, Wilson had been transported to the NIA where he is being detained.
Wilson is at the center of a legal battle over efforts to make instructions for 3D printed plastic guns widely available.
Immigration officials said he entered Taiwan on a 90-day visa-free policy for US citizens.
As his passport has been revoked, he is no longer eligible for the visa-free stay and will therefore be deported, the NIA said, adding that US authorities would take over the case.
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
Seven senior faculty members, including the principal, of a high school in Taichung were temporarily suspended from their jobs on Friday, pending an investigation by the Taichung Education Bureau into alleged bullying and abuse that led to the suicide of a student last month. The city’s education officials were too slow to suspend those involved, the student’s father told a news conference on Wednesday, at which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and members of the Humanistic Education Foundation were also present. The boy had been a good student and a high achiever during elementary and junior-high, and had
ORIGIN UNKNOWN: The Leofoo Village Theme Park and Taipei Zoo have accounted for their baboons, as authorities continue a 12-day capture attempt Authorities in Taoyuan are searching for a non-native baboon, possibly of the chacma species, that has been spotted several times in the city’s Pingjhen District (平鎮) over the past 12 days, and was most recently seen in coastal Sinwu District (新屋). The baboon was first spotted near a local factory on March 10 in central Taoyuan, Jhensing Borough Warden Huang Chih-chieh (黃志杰) said. Huang said he requested the Leofoo Village Theme Park’s help after a second sighting on Saturday. In other sightings, the baboon raided fruit and vegetable gardens on private property, and has evaded one capture attempt via a tranquilizer dart. Media reported
Taiwan would have established formal relations with Argentina long ago if not for China’s interference, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui told US-based Spanish-language online news outlet Infobae in an interview published on Tuesday. Beijing has left behind a string of unfulfilled promises in Latin America, including pledges to build the Grand Nicaragua Canal and airports, docks, ports and industrial zones in El Salvador, he said. Meanwhile, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and other countries enjoy pragmatic and improving relations with Taiwan based on cooperation on the economy, culture, technology and science, he said. While Taiwan is “happy to live and let live,”