Police in Taichung yesterday arrested a couple for allegedly posting threats against 11 Taipei prosecutors, after authorities on Thursday questioned a man surnamed Tai (戴) in Taipei in connection with the case.
The couple, a man surnamed Chou (周) and his girlfriend, surnamed Lin (林), both 41, were taken into custody late on Thursday after police tracked them down based on their social media accounts and IP address.
The three suspects are facing charges of “threatening to cause injury to life, body or property, thereby endangering another person’s safety” under the Criminal Code, and also for allegedly circulating another person’s photograph and private information without consent, a contravention of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法).
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Tai, 39, allegedly posted on Facebook a composite image of the 11 Taipei prosecutors handling the investigation of the Core Pacific Mall corruption case, adding: “Remember their names and faces.”
The Taichung couple allegedly reposted Tai’s composite image and added red streaks to represent blood, with the words: “A life for a life.”
The corruption investigation led to the arrest of former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), former Taipei deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲), other city officials and executives of Core Pacific Group.
“A life for a life” allegedly referred to the death of Pong’s wife after she fell from a building earlier this week.
Investigators said that “a life for a life” could be construed as inciting a death threat against the prosecutors.
Under questioning, the three suspects complained of the “unfair treatment” of Ko, Pong and other officials.
Prosecutors yesterday said there could be other suspects and that they were investigating Tai’s earlier posts of the photos and names of three judges presiding over the Core Pacific Mall trials.
Investigators believe that Tai had an accomplice who took the pictures illegally during a court hearing.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS