The Taoyuan Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Corps arrested online commentator Lin Yu-hong (林裕紘) after he returned from Vienna yesterday and forwarded his case to the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office.
The district prosecutors’ office said it would decide whether to submit a request to the Taoyuan District Court to detain Lin.
Lin, who goes by the Facebook handle Lin Bay Hao You (Lin Bay 好油) and has been critical of the government’s egg import policy, said late last month that he would stop posting after receiving death threats.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
However, hours after police summoned Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) employee Hsu Che-pin (許哲賓) for questioning and searched his apartment for allegedly sending the threats, Lin on Oct. 3 wrote on Facebook that the threats were a fabrication.
He said he had enlisted Hsu to send the death threats as he could no longer bear the stress of reporting on agricultural issues after being the target of numerous smears.
Hsu is in police custody.
Police said they had contacted Lin after he said he was threatened and asked him to go to the station to make a statement, but Lin said he had already scheduled a 17-day trip to Vienna starting on Sunday last week.
Lin contacted the police on Friday, saying that he would be returning to Taiwan yesterday, they said.
Lin said his phone and personal laptop were stolen at the Vienna International Airport, police said, adding that as Lin had not reported the case to the local authorities, they suspected he could be attempting to hide evidence.
Yu Hsuan International Law Firm manager Liao Fang-hsuan (廖芳萱) said that if Lin and Hsu had planned the entire scheme together, they could be found guilty of making false accusations.
If no victims are named, they could be sentenced to one year in prison or fined NT$9,000, Liao said, adding that if a victim is identified, they could serve up to seven years in prison.
As Lin knew the threats were false, the crime of making threats is baseless, but if Lin’s family were frightened by the threats, he could be found guilty of violating Article 305 of the Criminal Code, and have to serve up to two years in prison or pay a fine of NT$9,000, she said.
If found guilty of disturbing public peace, Lin and Hsu could be found guilty of contravening Article 63 of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) and have to spend three days in detention or pay a fine of NT$30,000, she said.
The district court might not approve a detention request for non-targeted false accusations, but could consider Lin’s claims that his phone and laptop were stolen as an attempt to hide evidence, which could increase the chance of such a request being granted, Liao said.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
RSS