The Changhua District Court sentenced two men to three years and eight months in jail for stealing the ashes of Cheng Shin Rubber Industrial Co founder Lo Chieh-min (羅結民) and attempting to ransom them back to his family for NT$60 million (US$1.95 million), the court said in a statement on Wednesday.
Lo, whose company is known internationally as Maxxis, died in March 2019, with his ashes interred in a family tomb at an undisclosed public cemetery, the court said.
A former 18-year Cheng Shin employee surnamed Tu (?) who knew the location of the tomb planned to steal and ransom Lo’s ashes to pay NT$2.7 million in debt, the court said.
Photo: Taipei Times file
On the night of Feb. 8, Tu and a friend, surnamed Chang (張), drove to the cemetery, broke into the tomb and took the urn containing Lo’s ashes, it said.
After Chang returned to his home in Changhua’s Yuanlin City (員林), he asked a friend of his, surnamed Lin (林), to call Lo’s second son, Lo Tsai-jen (羅才仁), and demand money, the court said.
In calls placed on Feb. 9 and 10, Lin told Lo Tsai-jen that he “had something of his father’s” and would “destroy it or reveal it to the media” if he did not receive a payment of NT$30 million, the court said.
However, Lin backed out upon learning that Chang was extorting Lo Tsai-jen, the statement said.
Chang doubled the ransom to NT$60 million and sent Lo Tsai-jen a photograph of the urn, warning him not the call the police, it said.
However, he did call the police — on Feb. 15 — and Tu, Chang and Lin were detained separately on Feb. 17 or afterward, it said.
All three admitted their involvement to investigators and Lo’s remains were returned to his family, the court said.
Tu and Chang were found guilty of offenses against graves and corpses in the Criminal Code, while Lin was sentenced to seven months for attempted extortion, it said.
The verdicts can be appealed.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard