Chinese businessman Xiang Xin (向心) and his wife, Kung Ching (龔青), are free to leave Taiwan, as their travel ban has been lifted after nearly four years following their acquittal in a money laundering case.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Xiang and Kung thanked the High Court and the Taipei District Court, which had ruled in their favor in the money laundering case that was first tried in 2021.
The couple also expressed appreciation for what they said were the efforts of their lawyers, the balanced reports of the case in the media, the support of their friends in Taiwan, the care provided by Taiwanese doctors and the encouragement of strangers.
Photo: Taipei Times
“It has been a mystical journey,” they said. “Goodbye Taiwan.”
The couple had been banned from leaving Taiwan since November 2019, when they were arrested on suspicion of complicity in a different case that involved espionage accusations.
While no charges were eventually filed against them in that case, the travel ban was extended, as they were awaiting trial in a separate case of money laundering, which prosecutors had brought against them in April 2021.
The couple was accused of laundering funds for a Shanghai-based company, after they bought three luxury apartments in Taipei valued at nearly NT$300 million (US$9.3 million).
When the money laundering case was heard at the Taipei District Court in February last year, Xiang and Kung were cleared of the charges, with the court ruling that there was no solid evidence against them.
However, prosecutors appealed that verdict and the case was sent to the High Court, which on Sept. 6 upheld the lower court’s ruling, but retained the travel ban for another eight months.
Under the Criminal Speedy Trial Act (刑事妥速審判法), the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office had until Wednesday to appeal that verdict, but it failed to do so.
As a result, the Taiwan High Court lifted Xiang and Kung’s travel ban on Thursday.
In addition, their three luxury apartments in Taipei, which had been seized by prosecutors, must now be returned to them.
Xiang and Kung, who serve respectively as chief executive of China Innovation Investment Ltd and an alternate board member, were first arrested in Taiwan on Nov. 24, 2019, by Investigation Bureau agents at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport as they were about to fly to Hong Kong.
The arrests came after William Wang Liqiang (王立強), a self-proclaimed Chinese spy seeking asylum in Australia, claimed that China Innovation Investment, where he was formerly employed, was a front for Chinese intelligence efforts aimed at influencing Taiwan’s elections and targeting democracy advocates in Hong Kong.
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