The Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office recently shut down a Web site that sold sexually explicit images of minors, detaining three people, seizing cash and freezing account funds.
Last year, chief prosecutors Cheng Tzu-wei (鄭子薇) and Hsu Ya-wen (許亞文) discovered the site 5F Selfie (5F自拍) while investigating other cases of child pornography and voyeuristic videos, the office said in a news release today.
After the site continued to upload more illegal images and ignored several requests by the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Sexual Image Abuse Reporting Center to take down more than 300 items, chief prosecutor Chang Chun-hui (張春暉) ordered it be taken down, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office
On Tuesday last week, prosecutors ordered investigators to raid several locations, seizing evidence as well as NT$850,000 (US$28,427) in cash, 40,000 tether cryptocurrency USDT tokens and freezing NT$5.5 million in related company assets, it added.
After questioning suspects and witnesses, prosecutors requested the Ciaotou District Court to detain three men surnamed Lee (李), Wu (吳) and Lai (賴) without visitation rights, the office said.
Lee is listed as the company’s head, Wu is a manager and Lai is an advertiser, the statement said.
The court granted the request.
Prosecutors have also demanded the immediate shutdown of the Web sites involved and an expanded investigation into its activities, it said.
Chang also called for amendments to the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒少性剝削防制條例) to increase penalties for those who download, purchase, possess, view images or distribute of images of child sexual abuse.
Under current law, the penalty for distributing, buying or possessing such materials is one to seven years imprisonment.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
RSS