Taiwanese film director, Chinese cinematographer indicted
Central News Agency
2014-02-07 07:06 PM
Kaohsiung, Feb. 7 (CNA) Prosecutors indicted a celebrated Taiwanese film director and an award-winning Chinese cinematographer Friday for illegally trespassing onto a naval base in southern Taiwan.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office said the two men -- director Niu Chen-zer, who also goes by the name Doze Niu and is best-known for his award-winning film "Monga" about Taiwanese gangsters in the 1960s, and Cao Yu, who twice won cinematography awards at Taiwan's Golden Horse Film Festival -- violated Vital Area Regulations when they entered the Tsoying Naval Base on June 1, 2013 while scouting locations for Niu's new film, "Military Paradise."
The offense carries a maximum of up to five years in prison. Prosecutors said that Niu knew beforehand that mainland Chinese are not allowed to enter Taiwanese military facilities, but used his fame as a director who was shooting a film about the military to get Cao onto the base using the ID of a Taiwanese national.
Niu and Cao entered the base on a tour bus along with 23 other people, the prosecutors said. The prosecutors said two South Koreans also entered the base that same day, but they were included on a list previously approved by the Navy Command Headquarters through a film company, and no charges were lodged against them.
The prosecutors began a series of hearings on the case in mid- July 2013, summoning around a dozen people, including Niu, military personnel and film company staff.
The prosecutors watched a surveillance video taken on the day in question at the base and ruled out the possibility that Niu and Cao were attempting to obtain military intelligence or forge documents.
Meanwhile, the Navy said it respects the judicial decision and will step up security checks at military facilities to prevent similar incidents from taking place in the future.
A navy official said that Niu changed the list of people who would be coming to the base without prior notification and added that the photo on the ID used by Cao looked so similar to the cinematographer that it was "impossible to tell them apart."
(By Chen Chao-fu, Claudia Liu and Lilian Wu)
