Taiwanese Coastguard authorities have arrested a 43 year old Chinese fishing vessel Master of the Seychelles-flagged Indian Star reported as being named ‘Wang’ who is suspected of ordering the 2014 reported murders of four men at sea.

The murders came to light after the footage was exposed in a short film clip [WARNING: Graphic Footage] reportedly found on a mobile phone found in a taxi in Fiji, and first posted on YouTube on 17 August 2020, though now unavailable.

International press covered the case, including the Australian network ABC. It was also covered by Fish-I Africa.

Reported in the Taipei Times on 24 August 2020, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office is continuing its investigations, while the “Kaohsiung District Court has ordered that Wang be detained, citing his suspected involvement in major offences and the likelihood that he would attempt to flee the country.”

HRAS Footage Translation

At the time, Human Rights at Sea obtained one of the first translations of the footage as reported by the charity on 24 August 2014.

Language experts instructed by the charity were able to identify the translations in both Mandarin and Cantonese. (NB: Comments in [ ] square brackets are HRAS own expert’s comments.)

TIME / LANGUAGE / TRANSLATION

2:20 看一下，前面，前面一个两! watch ahead, ahead, there are one or two people!
2:34 要不要开枪啊？ we fire or not? (in very low voice)
2:45 不开吧？shall not we shoot? [other people, try to speak Chinese, but not very well pronounced]
2:49 不可能！ impossible!
3:10 赶快游！ Swim faster!
5:55 赶快把他结束了！make it end faster!
6:45 搞定他！Finish it!
7:49 在哪呀？Where?
7:53 在哪呀？ where?
7:55 没有看到啊？ I cannot see
8:02 他就要过来啊？ He is coming over
8:32 前面，准备到前面，拍什么？前面准备！To the front! prepare go to front! What are you doing? To the front.
8:39 前面，准备到前面！To the front!
9:02 开枪，开枪，开枪！Fire, fire, fire
9:15 OK!射中！ The objects have been shot [the (Captain) changed into Cantonese language]
9:30 我已经打中5个了 I have shot five bodies

The story was later reported by the former New York Times investigative journalist, Ian Urbina, on 20 July 2015 in the article ‘Murder at Sea: Captured on Video, but Killers Go Free‘.

Source: Human Rights at Sea