|
Police, prosecutors
slam travel documents for fugitive
By Lo Tien-pin and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with Staff writer
The Straits Exchange Foundation’s (SEF) unilateral approval of a former Bamboo
Union (竹聯幫) leader’s application for a “Taiwan compatriot travel document” (台胞證)
has shocked prosecutors and police, who called for the fugitive to be extradited
to Taiwan from China in accordance with the Agreement on Jointly Cracking Down
on Crime and Mutual Legal Assistance Across the Strait (海峽兩岸共同打擊犯罪及司法互助協議).
Sources speculated that Chang An-le’s (張安樂) motive for applying for the “Taiwan
compatriot travel document” — a document approved by Chinese authorities
allowing Taiwanese nationals to travel to China — was to obtain a viable way of
transporting himself between China and Taiwan, adding that because Chang is a
wanted fugitive whose passport had probably expired, he had no valid personal
identification.
“He is most probably attempting to return to Taiwan in an open manner by using
the document as a means to prove his identity,” sources said.
Chang, nicknamed “the White Wolf,” is listed among the nation’s 10 most-wanted
fugitives. He escaped to China just before being named a wanted person by the
Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for violating the Organized Crime Prevention
Act (組織犯罪防制條例) in 1996, and has not returned since.
The SEF said it had asked for opinions from the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB)
and the Taipei and Keelung district prosecutors’ offices. However, because of
opposition to the views of the CIB and the prosecutors by other government
agencies, it granted the request last Friday.
The bureau called the SEF’s decision a severe blow to the judiciary’s authority
to fight crime. The prosecutors’ offices added that Chang is still a wanted
fugitive and should be treated as such.
The CIB said it suggested the SEF refuse Chang’s request, adding that bureau
officials should bring Chang back to Taiwan in accordance with the cross-strait
agreement.
Since his escape from justice in 1996, Chang has continually challenged
Taiwanese police about how he would return to Taiwan in blatant disregard of the
law, the CIB said.
The SEF’s approval of Chang’s request would allow him to purchase a plane ticket
and return to Taiwan, allowing him to avoid being shepherded onto a plane in
handcuffs by bureau agents, the CIB said.
The bureau acknowledged its efforts in the past to extradite Chang had largely
been ignored by China, which said that Chang had been in China prior to the
agreement, signed in 2009, and voiced concern that should Chang — an investor in
China who has hired many locals — be extradited, his businesses would be shut
down, leaving his employees jobless.
Both prosecutors’ offices said they had also conveyed their criticism of the
SEF’s actions, with the Keelung Prosecutors’ Office saying that if it knew where
Chang was, it would try to arrest him in any way allowed under the Code of
Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法).
The Taipei Prosecutors’ Office said that Chang, through his lawyer, has asked
how long the wanted notice would remain in effect, to which the office said it
responded that the wanted notice was still good for at least another decade.
Meanwhile, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that he did
not understand Chang’s motives for applying for such a document, adding that
Chang did not need such a document to return to Taiwan.
However, Wang said that Chang had expressed his intent to return to Taiwan
through “several different channels,” adding that if Chang did not turn himself
in, it was still possible to negotiate with the Chinese on the possibility of
extradition.
Additional reporting by Huang Tun-yen,
Lin Chun-hung and Chen Hui-ping
|
