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Gravel truck driver Chang sued
COSTLY CRASH: The Presidential Office has spent more than NT$3 million repairing the building after Chang Te-cheng drove into it on Jan. 25 in an apparent protest
By Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNA
A man surnamed Lin is escorted in handcuffs out of a Taipei police station following questioning by police yesterday.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The Presidential Office has filed a criminal lawsuit against a man who alledgedly crashed his gravel truck into the Presidential Office Building last month and will later seek compensation to cover the repair costs, spokesperson Lee Chia-fei (李佳霏) said yesterday.
The criminal suit was filed on Wednesday last week against Chang Te-cheng (張德正) over damage to the building, Lee said.
The Presidential Office will later bring a civil lawsuit against Chang to seek compensation for the cost of repairing the damage to the building, according to another source within the office.
So far, the Presidential Office has spent more than NT$3 million (US$98,972) repairing the building and more funds might be needed, the source said.
Before dawn on Jan. 25, Chang alledgedly drove a 35-tonne truck up the front steps of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, but was stopped when a guard deployed a bulletproof gate.
The crash caused damage to the building’s ground floor and a pillar.
It was the most serious security breach at the Presidential Office Building in years.
In a series of Internet posts prior to the incident, Chang alledgedly vaguely indicated his intention to carry out the attack and he later told reporters that it was a deliberate act.
It is believed that he drove his truck into the front gates in frustration over what he considered an unfair sentence handed to him in a domestic violence case.
In related developments, the Taipei City Government’s Police Department yesterday afternoon detained a man surnamed Lin (林) for questioning after receiving a tip-off that he, after first visiting the Military Injustice Appeal Committee to tender a complaint, intended to crash his car into the Presidential Office Building to express his discontent.
Police officers were dispatched and they detained Lin at about 3pm after the latter had finished filing his complaint with the committee, which is located within the Executive Yuan compound.
Lin, whose car was parked outside the building, had been drinking alcohol, police said.
Lin was quoted by police as saying that a senior officer had played a prank on him in 1990 and he had been court-martialed for using violence against a superior officer, receiving a one-year prison sentence.
Lin said he hoped he could see justice done after so many years after court-martial cases were transferred to civilian courts last year after an amendment to the Code of Court Martial Procedure (軍事審判法).
The police said Lin was detained for suspected drunk driving and taken for a Breathalyzer test.
source: Taipei Times
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