China concerned about fishing boat crew
By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer
A government official from China said yesterday he is concerned that the 30 crew members from his country who were aboard a Taiwan-operated fishing ship when its captain and first mate were stabbed to death March 14 are being treated "more like suspects than witnesses."
During three detention hearings yesterday before three federal magistrates, 16 of the men who were aboard the vessel in international waters southeast of Hilo when the stabbings occurred were ordered held without bail at the federal detention center near the airport until they can be questioned by prosecution and defense attorneys in the case.
Detention hearings are scheduled tomorrow for the remaining 14 crew members of the fishing ship, the Full Means No. 2.
Liang Zen Guan, of the People's Republic of China Consulate in Los Angeles, said that there was no need for federal officials to put handcuffs and leg restraints on the 16 crewmen arrested Friday as witnesses in the murder case and that the same was true for the 14 arrested on Monday.
He said there also was no need for the men to be chained around the ankles when they appeared in court.
"Their basic human rights are being denied," Liang said in a telephone interview yesterday. "They are not dangerous people — they are being held as material witnesses. Their cooperation is needed to help the court, but the way they are being treated is just too much."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brady, who is handling prosecution in the case, declined to comment on Liang's claim that the crew members were not being treated properly.
Prosecution and defense attorneys want to question the crew members about Lei Shi, 21, a former cook aboard the 195-foot fishing vessel, who is accused of fatally stabbing captain Chen Chung-She and first mate Li Da Feng.
Shi allegedly stabbed the two after his demands that the boat return to China were rejected. The captain was a citizen of Taiwan but the first mate was from China, as are all of the remaining crew members.
Liang yesterday said he is hoping to get all of the crew members to hand-write their names and home addresses in Mandarin and provide their families' telephone numbers so that he can begin contacting relatives in China.
Chinese officials are reviewing the matter, Liang said, and jurisdiction remains an issue because the slayings took place in international waters. U.S. officials have said that Shi was able to hold crew members at bay for two days before they overpowered him and regained control of the ship. The U.S. Coast Guard later intercepted the ship and escorted it to Honolulu.
"Of course we have the power to prosecute in this case, but because the ship first landed in U.S. territory, the U.S. is handling the case," Liang said.
Chinese officials are still evaluating the case, he said, but it does not appear likely — at this point — that China will ask that Shi be turned over to face prosecution there.
While Shi faces the prospects of a death sentence under U.S. law, the same fate could await him if China or Taiwan asserts jurisdiction in the case, his attorney, federal deputy public defender Pamela Byrne, has said.
Brady said the crew will be allowed to leave once attorneys from both sides complete their interviews — a process that should take no more than three weeks.
Meanwhile, more details of ship and its crew surfaced in the court proceedings yesterday.
Daniel Pagliarini, court-appointed attorney for detained crew member Xiabo Qi, said that the ship departed from China on March 18, 2001, and that the crewmen had not touched land until they were taken off the ship over the past weekend.
Crew members are paid modest wages by American standards, about $200 a month at the low end to about $700 a month for skilled positions such as the ship's engineer, according to lawyers for the crew members. The ship's owner, FCF Fishery Co. of Taiwan, withholds various amounts from the paychecks for meals and to pay a "finder's fee" for getting the men jobs aboard the ship, the lawyers said.
Pagliarini said that in some cases, crew members had not been paid since they left home, while others were last paid at the start of the year.
Many of the crewmen are concerned about the wages they will lose while being detained in Honolulu since the company they work for sends periodic payments home to their families in China, their lawyers said.
Although they are being detained in a prison-like setting, each of the crew members will receive witness fees of $40 a day while in custody, which should more than make up for their lost wages, according to the lawyers. Some, however, are fearful of losing their jobs aboard the ship as a result of being caught up in a situation they had no part in causing, the lawyers said.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
