Man get life term again over train derailment, murder

Yesterday's ruling was the fourth verdict for Lee, made following his second appeal to the Supreme Court, but he can still appeal the case for a third time to the Supreme Court.

In Lee's first trial, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Pingtung District Court. But his jail term was cut to 18 years by the Kaohsiung branch of the Taiwan High Court during his second trial, and reduced further to 13 years in his third verdict, which was also made by the High Court's Kaohsiung branch following his first appeal to the Supreme Court.

The latest verdict said that Lee Tai-an and his younger brother Lee Shuang-chuan (李雙全), who committed suicide on March 23, 2006 after investigators began suspecting his involvement in the train derailment, conspired to destroy railway infrastructure and murder Chen Hong-chen (陳氏紅琛), the Vietnamese spouse of his brother Lee Shuang-chuan, seeking to collect up to NT$71 million in insurance payouts after Chen's death.

The incident occurred on March 17, 2006, when an express train running from Taitung in Eastern Taiwan to Kaohsiung in Southern Taiwan derailed in Pingtung County. Among the passengers on the train was allegedly Lee Shuang-chuan and his wife Chen, as well as an employee of the Taiwan Railway Administration, and 14 other passengers.

Chen appeared to have been seriously injured and was taken to the hospital, while 14 others also sustained injuries. High Court judges said that Chen didn't die in the train derailment, but was murdered in the hospital. Following an intensive investigation, they found that Chen had been injected with Etumine, a strong sedative mainly issued to patients with mental illness and then with snake poison by Lee Shuang-chuan before she boarded the train.

After the derailment, Lee Shuang-chuan immediately took his wife to the derailed train to give the misleading impression that she was seriously hurt in the derailment. She was injected with an additional poison after being rushed to the hospital, and then died.

In related news, Lee Tai-an was also ordered by the High Court to pay the Taiwan Railway Administration NT$54.75 million in derailment damages. The TRA filed a civil lawsuit two years ago requesting Lee Tai-an and his family pay damages for the derailment. The court said Lee Tai-an and the two sons of Lee Shuang-chuan should all contribute to the damage payments.

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