Five charged over alleged plot to run over comedian in Taiwan — ABC News Australia
Prosecutors in New Taipei, Taiwan, have charged five people in a case involving the alleged preparation of an attack on stand-up comedian Huang Yi-hao. According to investigators, the attack was linked to the performer’s jokes about the Chinese government, including Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Prosecutors’ account
As ABC News reports, the accused are Taiwanese citizens who were hired by a person from China. According to prosecutors, they had been following Huang Yi-hao since July and allegedly planned to break his arms and legs so that he could not perform.
Last month, the comedian was hit by a car while returning home on a scooter. He suffered a pelvic contusion. Prosecutors said that two of the accused admitted involvement in the plan to injure the performer.
Prosecutors called the case a serious instance in which the Chinese Communist Party is suspected of using tactics of transnational repression. According to their account, it concerns the alleged recruitment of people in Taiwan to violently suppress dissenting political voices.
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Previous attack and the comedian’s response
Huang Yi-hao said that he devoted only two and a half minutes of his performance to criticizing Xi Jinping and that at the time he was concerned only about whether the audience would laugh. He also said that before the vehicular attack, he had been targeted in an attack involving feces.
In May, two people were charged after they scattered feces and paint at a Taipei comedy club several hours before Huang’s scheduled performance. The comedian thanked police and prosecutors for their work and invited them to his future performances.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said that those who carry out the orders of the Chinese Communist Party or its accomplices for transnational repression will be prosecuted without leniency. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment.
