The army on Wednesday said it has suspended three officers as it investigates the death of a lieutenant, surnamed Huang (黃), who committed suicide at a military camp in Taoyuan earlier this month.
The suspension followed President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) comment on the matter earlier in the day, when she said she had read a letter written by the late lieutenant’s mother and promised a thorough investigation into the case.
In the letter, the mother said she suspected that her son had been a victim of bullying, which had led to his suicide.
The three suspended officers are: a colonel surnamed Chen (陳), deputy commander of the 269th Mechanized Infantry Brigade; a lieutenant colonel surnamed Chao (趙), head of the brigade’s logistics division; and a company commander and major, surnamed Lu (呂), the army said, without giving their first names.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday said its forensic team had already ruled Huang’s death as suicide by hanging, but it was investigating his family’s claims that he had been a victim of bullying within his military unit.
Prosecutors are questioning Huang’s peers and superiors, and checking his phone records to find out why he committed suicide.
Huang, 30, was found dead on April 16 at the Taoyuan military facility where he was based. No suicide note was found.
Huang’s mother later wrote an open letter to Tsai, asking the government to investigate her son’s death, which she said was the third suicide at the Taoyuan base in the past six months.
She said Huang’s superiors had been bullying him since he began serving in the unit in 2017.
Huang had also complained of heavy work and little help, which might have driven him to suicide, his mother said.
REPORT: Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining loitering munitions matching the AeroVironment Switchblade 300 or the Anduril Altius-600, ‘Foreign Policy’ said Taiwan is seeking US-made kamikaze drones in an apparent concession to pressure from Washington to focus on asymmetric capabilities to defeat or deter a Chinese attack, Foreign Policy said in a report on Wednesday. Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munitions or other devices with similar capabilities, it said, citing four sources familiar with the matter commenting on condition of anonymity. The Switchblade 300 is a tube-launched drone designed for attacking ground troops, while its larger sibling, the Switchblade 600, could be used to destroy tanks and entrenched troops. Ukraine has utilized both systems extensively in its fight against
Police officers yesterday morning apprehended the prime suspect of a triple homicide case, after raiding the suspect’s hideout in Taichung. They transported the suspect to New Taipei City for questioning and recorded his statement last night. The suspect, identified as a 24-year-old man surnamed Chang (張), is believed to have used his hands to strangle his wife, surnamed Chen (陳), 29, along with his three-year-old son from a previous marriage and his wife’s mother, 69. The three dead bodies were wrapped in blankets when they were discovered inside their apartment in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) on Saturday. Chang was holding a
Hungarian Member of Parliament Tompos Marton said he considers Taiwan to be a better alternative to China as a strategic partner. Marton, who is the vice president of the opposition Momentum Party, made the remarks in an interview with the Central News Agency on Sunday. He draped a Republic of China flag across his shoulders to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the capital city, Budapest, on Thursday last week, and openly voiced support for Taiwan on social media. He said in the interview that he wanted to remind the world that there were alternatives to China, and that “Taiwan has
A female physician at New Taipei City’s Shuang Ho Hospital was bullied and made to work for 32 consecutive hours by a senior colleague while pregnant before later having a miscarriage, an internal investigation found, the hospital said on Monday. The perpetrator has been removed from his post, the hospital said. The attending physician in the hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, identified by the pseudonym Y, earlier on Monday told reporters that she had been bullied by a male senior colleague who arranged shifts in her department. In January, shortly after she became pregnant, Y asked the department director if she could avoid overnight