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.
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,