A Chinese man who was arrested by the coast guard after driving a speedboat near the mouth of the Tamsui River (淡水河) in New Taipei City in June has been indicted for illegally entering Taiwan, the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
The man is suspected of violating the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) and the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法) for having entered Taiwan without official permits, the prosecutors’ office said.
The man, who is being held in a detention center of the National Immigration Agency’s New Taipei City specialized operation brigade, was handed over to the Shilin District Court for trial yesterday morning, it said.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
The Chinese national, who said he was restricted from leaving the country for online speech issues, bought a speedboat for 36,000 yuan (US$5,044) at Sandu’ao port in China’s Fujian Province on the morning of June 8, it said.
He set off from the port by speedboat at about 10pm the same day, according to a statement issued on Tuesday by the prosecutors’ office.
He drove the boat toward Taiwan and arrived at the Tamsui ferry pier at about 9am the next day, it said.
The coast guard began monitoring the small boat on the morning of June 9 after receiving a report that the vessel had hit a local commercial passenger vessel as it approached Fisherman’s Wharf, the office said.
The man went ashore and said he was there to surrender after riding his boat over from China, it said.
He told investigators: “I wanted to flee from there,” and “I came from China for democracy,” but he was arrested by the coast guard, which also seized his boat and GPS receiver, the office said.
The Chinese man said he took the risk of going to Taiwan to seek asylum because he was restricted from leaving the country for making unfavorable remarks, it said.
After the coast guard handed the man over to prosecutors, they filed a motion with the district court to have him detained, which the court granted, and he was held at a National Immigration Agency detention center.
The coast guard initially suspected that the man’s motive for coming to Taiwan involved national security issues, given his background as a member of the Chinese Communist Party and the spare fuel in his speedboat.
However, after an investigation, it determined that the man, who had been a Chinese lieutenant commander and the captain of a naval ship, was not involved in a military or national security offense based on two factors.
There was no evidence on his mobile phone of communication between him and any Taiwanese person, and he only had a small amount of foreign currency, including Japanese yen and Singaporean dollars, on him.
Prosecutors did not recommend a sentence for the suspect, but under the Immigration Act, people who enter Taiwan without permission are subject to jail terms of up to five years and/or a fine of up to NT$500,000.
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