Authorities are investigating three individuals, who have been brought in for questioning, in connection with alleged online threats made against prosecutors involved in the Core Pacific City corruption case after the suicide earlier this week of the wife of one of the figures involved in the case.
In the first case, a 39-year-old IT engineer surnamed Tai (戴), who manages the Facebook page "Meme Taiwanese Democracy (迷因台式民主)," was arrested yesterday after he posted the names and photos of 11 prosecutors working on the case.
Tai has claimed sole responsibility for publishing the information and said it was not linked to any political party.
Photo: CNA
He admitted to collecting and uploading the prosecutors' photos, but denied creating or sharing any violent or threatening content, such as digitally altered images showing blood spatters.
Prosecutors today requested his detention on suspicion of intimidation and endangering public safety.
In the second case, police traced the threatening imagery to a couple in Taichung — a 41-year-old man surnamed Chou (周) and his girlfriend surnamed Lin (林).
The two allegedly edited Tai's original posts to include violent visuals and captions such as "a life for a life" and reposted them online.
The couple was brought to Taipei for questioning yesterday night. They are being referred to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office for further investigation on similar suspicions.
The case attracted widespread attention after the wife of former Taipei Deputy Mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲), a central figure in the trial, died by suicide on Tuesday. The tragedy triggered a wave of hostility on social media directed at the prosecutorial team.
Pong was indicted in last December, along with former Taipei mayor and former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and Core Pacific Group Chairman Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京).
The officials are accused of accepting bribes from the company to illegally increase the permissible floor area ratio of a redevelopment project, thereby raising the property's value because more space could be built and sold.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS