Taichung District Prosecutors Office (“the Office”) investigated the criminal case of a "Taiwan version of Cambodia" criminal gang that not only locked the victims up but also murdered a victim and dumped his body in the cemetery at Xinshe District. After conclusion of the investigation, the prosecutors, considering that the 16 defendants including Ke ○○(all in detention) committed the offense of manipulating, directing (participating in) a criminal organization stipulated in the first (last) half of Paragraph 1, Article 3 of Organized Crime Prevention Act, and the offense of money laundering in Paragraph 1, Article 14 of Money Laundering Control Act as well as the offenses of dumping the deceased body specified in Paragraph 1 of Article 247, causing bodily injury to another in Paragraph 1 of Article 277, taking others into custody without authority in Paragraph 1 of Article 302, carrying weapons and robbery by three or more persons in Paragraph 1 of Article 330 and Paragraph 1 of Article 328, fraud by three or more persons in Subparagraph 2, Paragraph 1 of Article 339-4, and aggravated forced obscene act in Article 224-1 and Article 224, Criminal Code, initiated the public prosecution with Taiwan Taichung District Court (“the Court”) today (7th) in accordance with the regular proceeding. Among the aforementioned defendants, a separate public prosecution was also brought to the Court against four defendants including Zheng ○○ for the offense of homicide specified in Paragraph 1, Article 271 of Criminal Code according to Paragraph 1, Article 43 of Citizen Judges Act. This is the fifth public prosecution initiated by the Office pursuant to Citizen Judges Act since the Act took effect. The whole case was transferred to the Court today for all the defendants to be put on trial and for the Court to make a ruling of continuous detention or not.

  This case originated on December 8, 2022 while someone stumbled upon a corpse in Cemetery 7 at Xinshe District, Taichung City, and reported it to the Office. The Office immediately assigned Prosecutor Yi-Chun Chen and Prosecutor Shun-Shu Yang of the Major Crimes Unit to jointly provide assistance in the investigation. Prosecutors immediately conducted an autopsy on December 8, and commanded the Fifth Precinct and Dongshi Precinct of Taichung City Government Police Department, and New Taipei City Government Police Department Criminal Investigation Corps to form a task force to hunt down the murderers. Result of the investigation by the task force revealed that it was the 6 defendants including Liu ○○ who dumped the corpse. Hence, the prosecutors immediately issued the arrest warrant, directing the task force to arrest the first wave of defendants. Promptly the procurators requested detention at that night, and attended the Court in person. Accordingly, in the early morning of December 10, the Court ruled that the 9 people were detained and held incommunicado. Afterwards, the prosecutors commanded the task force to continue to trace the source and then successively arrested the 7 accomplices including Ke ○○ who were all detained too as the prosecutors requested.

  Result of the investigation by the task force revealed that the said 16 defendants have become the members of a criminal organization initiated by "Landao", "Princess Lump", "Duke" and others since September 2022. The criminal organization cooperated with an overseas computer room, and in Taiwan set up "money laundering section" (handling the cash flow from fraud by fraud ring) and "fleet" (managing dummy account providers) to act as "cash flow merchant". They sent messages on FACEBOOK, LINE and other social networking platforms that require account information for job hunting, loan or tax mitigation so that the dummy account providers fell into a mistake to believe the messages and contacted the criminal organization. The criminal organization provided such dummy accounts as they obtained and tested to the overseas computer room that then uses those accounts to collect the proceeds from fraud. Meanwhile, they controlled the providers of dummy accounts by means of locking them up to deprive them of freedom and injuring them, etc., (commonly known as “forced control”). There were 15 victims locked up by the criminal organization. The criminal gain from fraud amounted approximately to 84 million Taiwan dollars. In addition to using electric shock devices, bats, rubber mallets, baton guns and other weapons to commit violence and rob property, the room control personnel even committed forced obscene act on a female victim. One of the victims, Lin ○○, struggling and resisting, was hit on the head with handcuffs and clubs by 4 defendants including Zheng ○○, and consequently the victim died from serious injuries and being dumped in the cemetery.

  After conclusion of the prosecutors' investigation and on the basis of comprehensive consideration of all the evidence in the investigation concluding meeting of the Office, it was determined that the 16 defendants including Ke ○○ were guilty of the crimes of abandoning (dumping) a corpse, injuring others, illegally locking others up, aggravated robbery, aggravated fraud and aggravated forced obscene act specified in Organized Crime Prevention Act, Money Laundering Control Act and Criminal Code. Today (7th) public prosecution was initiated with Taichung District Court in accordance with the regular proceeding. Among the aforementioned defendants, Zheng ○○ and the other 3 defendants were accused of homicide pursuant to Criminal Code. Accordingly, the public prosecution was initiated in pursuance with Paragraph 1, Article 43 of Citizen Judges Act. Both the investigating prosecutor and the public prosecution prosecutor were present in person at the trial today, strongly suggesting that the judge rule in favor of the continuation of detention.

  The prosecutors in charge of this case deliberated that the 16 defendants involved inflicted inhumane act of violence and cruelty to innocent victims only for their own self-interest, causing severe physical and mental injuries to the victims, and even the death of a victim. Their offenses are devoid of humanity; there is no room for impunity. The Office requested the Court to impose the most severe sentence. The Office will also continue to track down the criminal leader behind the scenes for the purpose of completely disintegrating criminal group.