Coast guard personnel on Sunday detained a man who jumped bail after being convicted of involvement in the beating death of an off-duty police officer outside a Taipei nightclub in 2014.
Kuo Shih-chun (郭士均) was arrested while illegally entering Leiyu Township (烈嶼) in Kinmen County from Xiamen in China’s Fujian Province.
As Kuo was in March sentenced to 11 years in prison, the Fuchien Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday sent him to Kinmen Prison to start serving his sentence.
Taipei police detective Hsueh Chen-kuo (薛貞國) died on Sept. 14, 2014, after being set upon by a group of people outside Spark nightclub in Xinyi District (信義).
The Taiwan Supreme Court in March sentenced 57 people, including Kuo, for their involvement in Hsueh’s death to prison terms of up to 13 years.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office issued a wanted notice for Kuo after he jumped bail and reportedly fled to China.
Coast guard personnel in Kinmen monitoring a radar system on Sunday night picked up suspicious activity by a vessel moving from Xiamen toward the coast of Lieyu and sent officers to inspect the vessel.
A man who initially claimed to be a Chinese national traveling to Kinmen for sightseeing was later found to be Kuo after coast guard personnel searched him and found his Republic of China national identification card, Kinmen Chief Prosecutor Hung Chia-yuan (洪家原) said.
Whether Kuo would be transferred to another prison in Taiwan proper would be discussed if the Taipei prosecutors make a formal request or Kuo files an application, Hung said.
Prosecutors would also investigate Kuo for illegally entering the nation in contravention of the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法), Hung added.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A tropical disturbance off the southeastern coast of the Philippines might become the first typhoon of the western Pacific typhoon season, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The system lacks a visible center and how it would develop is only likely to become clear on Sunday or Monday, the CWA said, adding that it was not yet possible to forecast the potential typhoon's effect on Taiwan. The American Meteorological Society defines a tropical disturbance as a system made up of showers and thunderstorms that lasts for at least 24 hours and does not have closed wind circulation.
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed