Cambodian authorities yesterday sentenced two Taiwanese to two years in prison and a NT$30,000 fine each for staging a kidnapping in the southern coastal city of Sihanoukville which they live streamed online.
Chen Neng-chuan (陳能釧), 31, and Lu Tsu-hsien (魯祖顯), 34, were convicted of inciting and causing social disorder a day after Cambodian police officials convened a news conference about their arrest.
Chen, who goes by the online name “Goodnight Chicken” (晚安小雞), and Lu, known by the handle “Anow” (阿鬧), must each pay 4 million riels (US$982), according to a court filing.
Photo: AFP / Preah Sihanouk Provincial Administration
The court said the duo arrived in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, on Sunday intending to film videos with made-up, fake content with a focus on purported human trafficking, beatings and sexual assaults by online scam operators and the human organ harvesting business operating in the nation, the Cambodian China Times reported yesterday.
An investigation found that the duo live-streamed a clip showing Chen headed inside a compound allegedly near the KB Hotel, where he was seemingly beaten up by security guards.
They traveled to Sihanoukville’s Chinatown area the next day, where Chen acted scared, yelling for help while apparently running away from someone who was chasing him, the report said.
At Thursday’s news conference, both men confessed to making fake videos after police seized items and tools they used to make the content.
The duo knelt down, apologized and begged the authorities for forgiveness and to give them a second chance, promising to use their online influence to produce videos showing the “authentic side of Cambodia.”
Preah Sihanouk Governor Kuoch Chamroeun rejected their request, saying that the duo had made serious mistakes and must bear the legal responsibility according to Cambodian law, and that both would be prosecuted and must serve the full prison sentence before being deported.
“It is a very serious matter and it is not enough just to give a verbal reprimand to educate them. If we forgive them, then other people will come here to produce fabricated content and tarnish Cambodia’s image,” Chamroeun was quoted saying.
In Taipei, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) yesterday said that Taiwan respects the investigation and prosecution process by Cambodian police and its justice system.
The nation’s representative office would provide assistance to ensure the men receive fair and reasonable treatment, he said.
The case has received extensive media coverage in Taiwan and many people went online to criticize the duo, saying they had brought shame and derision that had tainted the Taiwanese community of online streamers and digital content creators.
“It was a world-class embarrassment for Taiwan,” one wrote.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping