TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Singapore has detained and charged one of its citizens for making bomb threats against Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said Tuesday (March 26).
Since the new Legislative Yuan was sworn in on Feb. 1, lawmakers from both opposition and ruling parties received messages threatening them with violence if they did not pay varying sums of money. Investigations showed that most of the threats originated overseas.
Lo’s office on March 2 told police about a threat from an individual identifying himself as Spencer Lui, per Radio Taiwan International (RTI). In a Facebook post, he threatened Lo, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), and their families with bomb attacks. By the end of the day, the CIB concluded by comparing pictures and IP data that the Singaporean man was a likely suspect.
Police in Singapore detained Lui on March 4 and seized communications equipment. They informed the CIB Tuesday that the suspect had been charged with disseminating false information.
If found guilty, he could be sentenced to a maximum of seven years in prison, or to a maximum fine of S$50,000 (NT$1.18 million). The CIB said it was continuing to investigate other instances of online threats against Taiwanese politicians, with most of the evidence pointing at overseas sources.