Chinese speedboat man sentenced to 8 months for entering Taiwan illegally

Taipei, Sept. 18 (CNA) The Shilin District Court on Wednesday sentenced a Chinese man who sailed a speedboat near the mouth of the Tamsui River in June to eight months in prison for violating Taiwanese immigration law.

The man, arrested in June by Taiwan's Coast Guard, received the sentence for contravening the Immigration Act after he entered Taiwan without the necessary permits, the court said in a statement.

The verdict can still be appealed.

Under the law, people who enter Taiwan without permission are subject to jail terms of up to five years and/or a fine of up to NT$500,000 (US$15,498).

The suspect, identified as a 60-year-old man surnamed Ruan (阮), said he was restricted from leaving China over online speech issues.

He brought a speedboat for 36,000 Chinese yuan (US$5,036) at Sandu'ao port in Ningde in China's Fujian Province on the morning of June 8, and then set off from the port by speedboat around 10 p.m. the same day, according to a statement issued by the Shilin District Prosecutors Office on Aug. 14.

Ruan drove the boat to Taiwan and arrived at a Tamsui ferry pier in northern Taiwan around 9 a.m. the next day.

Taiwan's Coast Guard began monitoring the small boat after it received a report that the vessel had hit a local commercial passenger vessel while approaching Fisherman's Wharf, the prosecutors office said.

The man then went ashore and said he wanted to surrender.

He said "I wanted to flee from there" and "I came from China for democracy," but he was arrested by the Coast Guard, which also seized his boat and GPS receiver, the prosecutors office said.

The Shilin District Court on June 17 approved a request by Taipei prosecutors to detain Ruan and hold him incommunicado. It also ruled that he should be held in custody at a National Immigration Agency detention center.

The court on Wednesday ruled that the man had taken steps to surrender himself voluntarily to authorities, so deserved a more lenient sentence.

Whether or not the Chinese man will be forced to leave the country will be left to the discretion of the administrative agency, according to the district court.