Staff writer, with CNA
The Taipei District Court yesterday sentenced 13 people in connection with the death of a woman whose body was found at the meeting place of a Buddhist group in the city’s Daan District (大安) in 2024. The court sentenced the group’s leader, Buddhist writer Wang Yun (王薀), to 12 years in prison for causing bodily injury leading to the death of the woman surnamed Tsai (蔡). The group’s chief executive, Wu Hui-chu (吳慧珠), and followers surnamed Kan (幹), Liang (梁), You (游) and Chiang (姜) received prison sentences of 10 years, while follower Lee Yuan-yuan (李淵源) received nine years for the same crime.
The brother of a person killed in a case involving a Buddhist group, center, speaks to reporters in Taipei after the Taipei District Court delivered its verdict yesterday.
Photo: CNA
Four other members received sentences of 18 months to five years for acting as accomplices. Taiwanese actor Lee Wei (李威) and his wife, Chien Yu-chia (簡瑀家), who were both implicated in the case, were sentenced to one year and 10 months and one year and eight months in prison respectively, suspended for five years for cooperation in testifying for prosecutors.
The court said that, in determining the sentences, it assessed each defendant’s actions related to Tsai’s death, and considered whether they colluded, obstructed investigators or reached settlements with Tsai’s family. The verdict can be appealed. Emergency services were called in July 2024 about a woman found lying motionless in a first-floor property on a residential block on Siwei Road in downtown Taipei, the verdict said. After arriving at the scene, authorities found the body of Tsai, a member of the religious group that gathered at the meeting place, prosecutors said. An autopsy determined that she died of rhabdomyolysis, a complex medical condition involving the rapid breakdown of damaged or injured skeletal muscle, they added. Traumatic injury is a common cause of rhabdomyolysis, according to the US National Library of Medicine. Surveillance footage showed members of the group, including Tsai, going to the Water Moon Teahouse (水月草堂) on the night of July 23, 2024, near the group’s meeting place in the vicinity of Technology Building MRT Station, during Typhoon Gaemi, prosecutors said. Several of those present were later recorded pulling a cart carrying Tsai’s body from the teahouse to their meeting place, where she was left, before the members departed without calling emergency services, they said. After an investigation and two rounds of searches, prosecutors indicted 13 suspects over Tsai’s death in March last year. In its verdict, the Taipei District Court said Wang became angry with Tsai, who managed the group’s finances, over her handling of his divorce settlement, as well as complaints from other followers about her personality. Wang initiated a discussion with Tsai in which she expressed her “repentance,” knelt before Wu, and agreed to shave her head and take vows as a nun, it said. However, Wang believed that was insufficient, and scheduled a meeting with Tsai at the teahouse, where Wu, Chiang, Kan, You and Liang repeatedly forced Tsai to kneel and kowtow by pulling, pushing and kicking her, causing Tsai to collapse, as other group members watched or stood guard outside, the verdict said. After Tsai collapsed, Wang left the teahouse, while Lee Yuan-yuan and others retrieved a cart and pushed Tsai back to the group’s meeting place, it said. Later that night, at about 3am, they found Tsai unconscious, but instead of calling an ambulance, they informed Wang and called several followers who were also doctors to try to revive Tsai, to no avail, it said. The members later created a group chat to discuss fabricating a cause of death for police and prosecutors, and waited until 10am to call an ambulance, by which time Tsai had died, the verdict said. Although the defendants denied involvement, surveillance footage, seized phone records, and testimony from witnesses, including Lee Wei and Chien, and from forensic experts proved their guilt, it said. Lee Wei, 45, known for his starring role in the popular television drama Toast Boy’s Kiss (吐司男之吻) in 2001, became a devout Buddhist after leaving the entertainment business.