Day: December 17, 2022

Five suspects who lured people with promises of lucrative jobs and then held them against their will to get access to their bank accounts to use for criminal purposes have been indicted, prosecutors said Saturday.

In a statement, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors Office said the suspects, including a 22-year-old man surnamed Peng (?) who allegedly led the gang, were indicted on Dec. 6 for breaking organized crime laws, and for offenses against personal liberty and causing bodily harm and intimidation.

The crime ring allegedly used fake job ads that touted high pay and relatively easy work to lure people to an abandoned bunkhouse in Kaohsiung’s Jiasian District.

The applicants who showed up were then forced to stay there against their will and were beaten if they resisted or tried to flee, prosecutors said.

Held in confinement, the victims were coerced into handing over their smart phones, bank accounts, passbooks and personal seals to gang members, who used them to launder money, prosecutors said.

The case only came to light when one of the victims successfully escaped confinement on Aug. 25 and called the police from a nearby private home. Police immediately headed to the bunkhouse and arrested five suspects, including Peng.

According to the police investigation, a female victim in her 40s was reportedly shot with a stun gun and beaten with a water pipe after being caught trying to flee carrying a written license plate number of a vehicle belonging to the ring.

Others were allegedly burned with cigarettes, police said at the time.

At the location, police seized stun guns, pepper spray devices, handcuffs, metal rods, wire nails, account books and bank cards and freed six individuals who were being held by the ring, police said.

The police also found that Peng was a wanted criminal who had been convicted of armed robbery two years earlier but went on the run after being sentenced to seven years and 10 months in jail.

He was sent directly to jail after being arrested in this case, according to prosecutors.

Due to the severity of their crimes, prosecutors on Saturday said they were seeking heavy sentences for Peng and the four other suspects.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) expressed condolences on Saturday to the families of the victims of a landslide in Malaysia that has claimed at least 21 lives, and said no Taiwanese nationals were known as of yet to have been affected by the incident.

No Taiwanese nationals have been injured or adversely affected by the landslide that happened in the early hours of Friday at a holiday campsite in Selangor state in West Malaysia so far, MOFA said in a statement.

At least 21 people have been killed and a dozen more remained missing as of Saturday morning, local media reported. Rescue operations continue at the site, where, according to its management, 30 children and 51 adults were registered to stay overnight, reports said.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia will closely monitor subsequent developments after the incident, MOFA said, urging Taiwanese people who are in the region to remain cautious and not hesitate to contact the Taiwanese representative office in times of emergency.

Meanwhile, MOFA said following the incident, it had extended the government’s concern and sympathy to the Malaysian representative to Taiwan Sharon Ho (???), who then expressed her appreciation in return.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel