Yang, who police say has confessed to being the rice bomber, is blamed for planting 17 explosive devices in Taipei in the past year. Each carried a trademark sprinkling of rice and a letter accusing the government of ignoring the plight of farmers by opening Taiwanese markets to foreign rice in 2002.

One of the small bombs exploded outside the Legislative Yuan building in June and another outside the Ministry of Education building recently.

Yang's capture on November 26, however, has not been widely applauded.

Farmers from Yang's home town of Changhwa, in central Taiwan, are instead raising funds to defend him, and a committee made up of farmers' and workers' representatives has been set up to help the 25-year-old. Three lawyers have volunteered their services to Yang.

Farmers and villagers from Changhwa went to the Legislative Yuan on Thursday to petition for Yang's release, blaming the government's unfair policies for having pushed him over the edge.

'Yang Ju-men never hurt anyone... The government's impotence and improper policies led Yang to take the extreme way,' said one of the petitioners. No one was killed or injured in the rice bomber's campaign, which resulted in at least eight explosions. Even police agree the attacks were largely symbolic.

Yang, a poultry vendor, was arrested after being turned in to police by his mildly retarded younger brother, Yang Ju-tsai. He called police after images of the bomber, caught on a surveillance camera, were made public.

Yang Ju-tsai took police to search his brother's home in Keelung outside Taipei. Officers said they found evidence there of bomb-making and drafts of a letter threatening the government and demanding a halt to rice imports. DNA tests later linked Yang Ju-men to a rice bomb planted at a subway station in October, leading him to admit to police that he was the culprit.

But police suspect Yang may have orchestrated his own capture so his brother could claim the NT$500,000 ($121,000) reward. Taiwanese media said Yang, a monthly donor to a foreign children's charity, had asked his brother to donate the money to the needy - further boosting his standing among his supporters.

Social commentators have leapt to Yang's defence, saying that instead of treating the case as a simple crime, the government must take note of Yang's motives. 'We call ourselves a democracy, but the rice bomber Yang Ju-men gave us a slap in the face over what we bill ourselves to be,' said commentator Chou Tien-jui.

Taiwan opened up its market to foreign rice when it joined the World Trade Organisation in 2002, despite protests by local rice farmers. In its first year, the policy switch caused NT$6.5 billion ($1.56 billion) in local agricultural losses.

The retail price of rice has plunged from NT$34 per kilogram to NT$13.