The Yilan District Court today approved a request by prosecutors to hold three Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) staffers incommunicado over alleged involvement in a recall petition fraud.
Prosecutors are reportedly investigating fraudulent petition signatures in a recall campaign against Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chun-yu (陳俊宇).
Prosecutors are reportedly investigating suspected document forgery and contraventions of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in the recall petition.
Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times
Three former and current staffers of the KMT Yilan chapter, Yu Ling-chieh (俞凌傑), Chen Chien-feng (陳堅豐) and Li Tzu-hui (李姿慧), were ordered to be held incommunicado after the court decided that there is a risk that the defendants might flee or destroy evidence.
The three pleaded guilty in today’s detention hearing, admitting that they have forged documents.
Li said she did so under the instruction of the other two defendants, the court heard.
More than 200 documents were forged, with 46 signatures from deceased people, prosecutors said.
It is suspected that the petitions were signed by the same person, the court heard.
The three were among 13 people listed as defendants after 15 people were summoned for questioning.
Nine KMT staffers and members, including the recall campaign leader Lee Hui-ling (李惠玲), were released on bail ranging from NT$30,000 (US$923) to NT$200,000, while one KMT member was released without bail.
KMT Yilan County chapter director Lin Ming-chang (林明昌) returned to the country yesterday night and is not feeling well, sources said.
Lin could be summoned for questioning in the coming days, sources said.
It is suspected that the documents were forged under the instruction of high-ranking members, prosecutors said.
They said they would not rule out the option of conducting further investigation.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
RSS