The head of a Tainan temple and seven others were indicted on Friday by prosecutors investigating gun attacks on a campaign headquarters and a business run by a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) official in November last year.
Six of the people who were indicted — Kung Hsiang-chih (孔祥志), Yang Chan-hua (楊展華), Lee Chi-han (李奇漢), Kuo Chien-chang (郭建彰), Tsai Chin-lang (蔡金郎) and Hsieh Chun-cheng (謝俊誠) — were detained, while Wang Wen-tsung (王文宗), chairman of Cihji Temple in Tainan’s Syuejia District (學甲), was released on NT$700,000 bail, the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office said.
An eighth suspect — Hung Cheng-chun (洪政軍), who was extradited from China in February — is serving a nine-year prison sentence for a separate firearms offense.
Photo: Wang Chieh, Taipei Times
All eight had been indicted over their alleged involvement in twin attacks on the campaign headquarters of Hsieh Shu-fan (謝舒凡) and a business belonging to former DPP Central Executive Committee member Kuo Tsai-chin (郭再欽) in the run-up to last year’s local elections.
On Nov. 10 last year, police responding to a 3am report of exploding firecrackers arrived to find a steel shutter on Hsieh Shu-fan’s campaign headquarters in Syuejia riddled with about 30 bullet holes.
Surveillance footage recovered by police showed a man — who prosecutors identified as Kung — firing shots from a gun into Hsieh Shu-fan’s office before departing on a scooter.
The same person had shot up a technology firm run by Kuo Tsai-chin shortly before arriving at Hsieh Shu-fan’s campaign headquarters, prosecutors said.
Neither location was occupied at the time of the shootings and no injuries were reported.
Hsieh Shu-fan, a DPP candidate whose father is former independent Tainan city councilor Hsieh Tsai-wang (謝財旺), was elected to the Tainan City Council on Nov. 26.
Kung, a Syuejia resident with a criminal record, was tracked down in China and extradited to Taiwan in February along with Hung.
Prosecutors said that Wang and Hung, a close associate of the temple chairman, masterminded the shootings and recruited Kung to carry them out.
Wang and Hung have denied involvement in the shootings.
The five others indicted on Friday have been accused of managing other tasks, such as supplying the MP5 gun allegedly used in the attack and providing Kung with the scooter.
Hung and Kung, who prosecutors said were smuggled into China after fleeing Taiwan by boat in November last year, were arrested by Chinese police in Quanzhou on Jan. 18.
Prosecutors said that Wang subsidized Hung during the latter’s time in hiding, saying that the temple boss visited China in December last year and in January to meet with him.
The motives behind the shootings were still being investigated, prosecutors said, adding that there are other potential indictments in the case.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS