The Shilin District Court in Taipei on Friday handed down a combined sentence of 24 years in prison to a man found guilty of murdering two people during a fight in 2023.
The verdict against the man, surnamed Wang (王), was based on conclusive evidence, the court said in a news release.
The victims were identified by their surnames, Kao (高) and Liao (廖), it said.
Photo: Yang Kuo-wen, Taipei Times
According to the court, Wang and Kao were childhood friends, and both worked for the Environmental Cleaning and Maintenance Division in Datong District (大同), part of the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection.
After having an argument at work, Kao called Wang to meet him outside his residence to settle their dispute early on Nov. 16, 2023, the court said.
However, Kao did not arrive alone, but showed up with Liao and another friend, surnamed Lee (李), armed with knives, batons and aluminum baseball bats.
After arriving at the scene, a brawl quickly ensued, with Wang stabbing Kao and Liao with a foldable knife that he carried, the court said.
Kao and Liao were later pronounced dead at a hospital due to excessive blood loss, it added.
Although Wang also sustained injuries from the attack, they were not life-threatening, and he was subsequently arrested and charged with murder in January last year following an investigation by prosecutors.
The defendant argued that his actions were in self-defense, but based on footage taken from nearby surveillance cameras and witness accounts, both parties were engaged in mutual attacks, the court said.
It determined that Wang’s actions were brutal, as if carried out with intent to kill.
The ruling can be appealed.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS