Failed bombings solved, two suspects in custody
ROC Central News Agency
2013/04/16 22:59:16
Taipei, April 16 (CNA) Local police authorities took custody Tuesday of two men suspected of carrying out failed bombing attempts in northern Taiwan last week, but their motive remained a mystery.
Hu Tsung-hsien and Chu Ya-tung, both in their 40's, fled to China's Guangdong Province April 12 soon after planting the bombs -- one in a toilet on a High Speed Rail train and the other outside a legislator's office in New Taipei -- but were arrested with the help of the Chinese authorities and brought back to Taiwan.
At a press conference, Wang Cho-chiun, director-general of the National Police Agency, said the two are believed to be the only people involved in the planning and the execution of the failed attack.
The fact that the police were able to crack the case and have the suspects arrested in a matter of days can be attributed to good work done by the forensic team, Wang said.
The police said they found traces of DNA on the suitcases and fingerprints belonging to the two suspects on a van left in a car park near Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where the two boarded a flight for China.
The police started looking for the van after seeing footage recorded by neighborhood surveillance cameras showing Chu getting out of the vehicle carrying the suitcase bombs.
Hu is a lawyer who was indicted in February on charges of extortion and leaking private information, while Chu is a taxi driver with a criminal record related to sex offenses. The two are said to have known each other for up to seven years.
The police believe Hu made the bombs in his apartment in Hsinying, Tainan, using information he found on the Internet.
Apparently incriminating evidence has been found in the apartment, including plastic containers similar to those in the suitcases and torn-up notes similar to those attached to two of the suitcases.
All of the four bombs were found before they had been timed to explode. Smoke coming from of the two found in the train toilet alerted passengers, who called the police.
The police described the bombs as crudely made and said they probably would not have gone off if left unattended. Each suitcase contained up to 30 liters of petrol, a gas canister and an alarm clock.
Terrorist attacks are rare in Taiwan and it is the first time that the High Speed Rail, which began operations six years ago, has been targeted in such a way, prompting government officials to say that they would tighten up security on public transport.
(By Johnson Sun and Jay Chen)
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