Sat, Aug 12, 2000 page1

• Lo Fu-chu makes court appearance

  LEGISLATIVE VIOLENCE The lawmaker, whose name has been associated with organized crime, made a rare court appearance to defend himself against assault charges leveled by a fellow lawmaker stemming from a fight in the legislature

  • By Irene Lin / STAFF REPORTER
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  Independent lawmaker Lo Fu-chu (羅福助), whose name is often associated with Tiendaomeng, an organized crime group, made a rare appearance at a court hearing yesterday in response to a charge of assault made against him by a DPP lawmaker.

  Lo, along with lawmaker Chou Wu-liu (周五六) and Lin Ming-i (林明義), are charged with assaulting DPP lawmaker Yu Cheng-tao (余政道) amid a chaotic fight among lawmakers during a legislative session on July 15 last year.

  Chou and Lin did not show up, but Lo, who had never responded to a court subpoena before, made the appearance at a hearing in the Taipei District Court yesterday.

  During the hearing, six videotapes of TV news programs which recorded proceedings of the June 15 session were played to review what had happened in the chamber. The court determined that Lo, surrounded by a crowd of lawmakers, forced his way through the crowd to find Yu and then punched him in the head three times.

  Chou and Lin were also found to have hit Yu in the chest and belly during the incident.

  The video showed Yu, whose glasses were first slapped away by Lo, eventually collapsing on the floor after the violent confrontation.

  The fight broke out around 8pm. Allegedly, around noon that day, Lo made intimidating remarks against Yu and other DPP lawmakers, who had voiced strong opposition to Lo's recommendation that independent lawmaker Wu Tse-yuan (伍澤元) be made a legislative representative to the high-profile National Judicial Reform Conference in July last year.

  Wu, who was former Pingtung County commissioner, had previously been convicted of graft and is still appealing his conviction. His participation was then widely debated and was eventually rejected by organizers of the conference.

  Later that day, Lo was alleged to have had a physical confrontation with several DPP lawmakers as a result of a disagreement over an amendment which dealt with whether employers of the farmer and fishermen associations should be discharged after being convicted of an appealable offense.

  Central to the debate over the amendment was that farmer and fishermen associations have long been seen as important bases for the KMT to pull in votes at the grassroots level during elections.

  The tension then intensified when several DPP lawmakers threw papers at the vice president of the legislature, Yao Eng-chi (饒穎奇) of the KMT, who was announcing the start of a vote on the amendment despite the ongoing debates. It was at that point that Lo and the other two KMT lawmakers allegedly carried out the violent attacks against Yu.

  During the hearing yesterday, Lo alleged that he had been hit first and was only fighting back. He said that it was natural for a person to "spontaneously" defend himself if attacked.

  Lo, however, was unable to produce evidence to support his claim.

  Lo admitted that it was not good to fight and said he is willing to "talk about" the possibility of an out-of-court settlement with Yu.

  However, Yu, who arrived late due to a delayed flight, said outside the court that he did not want a settlement and he hopes the court will rule on the lawmakers' behavior in the case.

  "Lawmakers can disagree, but they have no right to use violence against others," he said.
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