The chief suspect in an attack on a Taipei restaurant involving the release of 1,000 live cockroaches was detained and held incommunicado yesterday, while bail was set at NT$50,000 each for his three alleged accomplices.
The Taipei District Court granted prosecutors’ request to detain the 26-year-old chief suspect, surnamed Wu (吳), but declined requests to detain his co-suspects, surnamed Tsao (曹), Hsu (許) and Tsai (蔡), who are in their early 20s.
The four men, who were arrested on Tuesday during raids in Taipei and New Taipei City, along with a female minor who was later released, said they had been hired to “persuade” the owner of the restaurant to settle a debt with an unidentified creditor.
After interrogating the men, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday filed requests to have them detained on suspicion of using threats or violence at a public gathering, citing the risk that they might try to collude with each other or flee if they were granted bail.
At their detention hearings late on Wednesday and early yesterday, the four suspects told the court that after seeing media reports about the attack, they contacted each other and decided to go into hiding in Taichung.
However, because of media coverage of the incident, they were unable to find accommodation in Taichung and decided to return by car to Taipei, the court said, adding that three of the suspects said they had disposed of their phones to avoid being tracked.
A major piece remains missing in the case, as prosecutors have yet to identify the person who directed the attack, the court said.
At his detention hearing, Wu told the court that he did not know the name or address of the person who hired him, as they had only communicated via a messaging app and that he had discarded his phone.
Wu said he had initially contacted the person to borrow money and that he agreed to carry out the attack when the person promised him 20 to 30 percent of the profit on any debts they recover.
He said the person also made an advance payment of NT$16,000 to Tsao and Hsu.
The court said it ordered Wu’s detention because it believes he knows and might be trying to protect the mastermind behind the attack and could try to collude with them if he were granted bail.
As for the three other suspects, the court said that although they pose a flight risk, several mitigating factors — including their relative youth, their minor roles in the attack and their clean records — did not justify pretrial detention.
The attack took place at the G House Taipei restaurant on Xinsheng N Road, just before 7:30pm on Monday.
The suspects, dressed in black, allegedly entered the restaurant and threw more than 1,000 small cockroaches into the air near a counter on the second floor, before fleeing in a vehicle and on a scooter.
Wu said they had purchased the cockroaches — a variety commonly used by aquarists as fish food — for NT$10,000 from an aquarium shop in New Taipei City, before dividing them into three bags and driving to the restaurant.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during