The uncle of Taiwanese-Brazilian boy Iruan Ergui Wu (
Kaohsiung Judge Liao Cheng-hsiung (
PHOTO: SU FU-NAN, TAIPEI TIMES
"The Wus will have to bring Iruan to the Kaohsiung District Court in person," Liao said.
Liao, accompanied by court clerks, police officers and Brazil Business Center Director Paulo Pinto, arrived at Wu's Kaohsiung residence yesterday morning to receive the boy.
Pinto was acting as Ergui's legal representative.
When the group arrived, Wu Huo-yen refused to hand over the boy, insisting that Ergui should have come to Taiwan to pick him up.
Wu Huo-yen's lawyer, Wu Chiu-li (
Liao gave a new deadline of Monday and handed another official notice to Wu Huo-yen, which he refused to sign.
According to Liao, if the family fails to hand over the boy by the new deadline, Wu Huo-yen will be arrested and put in jail until Iruan is escorted to Brazil.
Liao has the option to fine the Wu family NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 should they resist attempts to repatriate the boy and has the power to order police to use force to take Iruan.
The refusal to comply with the court order demanding Iruan's return upset Pinto.
"This is absurd. Are you kidding me or what?" he said.
Pinto was supposed to pick up Iruan and take an evening flight to Porto Alegre, Brazil.
The Kaohsiung District Court said the official notice was mailed on Dec. 23 last year and was signed by Wu Huo-yen's sister-in-law, Chen Hsiu-yen (
To ensure that Wu Huo-yen received the notice, the court mailed another official notice on Jan. 5 to the local police station and officers delivered the notice to Wu Huo-yen in person.
According to the Civil Code, judges are authorized to carry out a court order 11 to 30 days after the arrival of the official notice. The period ended Thursday night.
In addition to claiming that he did not receive official notice from the court, Wu Huo-yen said he wants to see two things happen.
"We hope that Ergui can come in person. If she has monetary problems, we are more than happy to help. If not, we hope that we can ask somebody we know to escort Iruan back to Brazil. We will be worried if we turn him over to someone we barely know," Wu Huo-yen said.
Meanwhile, Javier Hou (
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS