The Supreme Court has decided to review the four-year prison term the Taiwan High Court imposed on former New Party legislator Elmer Feng (馮滬祥) for sexually assaulting his Filipina house-keeper after Feng submitted a statement from forensic expert Henry Lee (李昌鈺).
Feng told reporters yesterday that because Lee had provided a forensic statement to the Taiwan High Court and the Supreme Court that raised questions about two pieces of underwear with his semen on them, the Supreme Court decided to review his sentence.
The Filipina victim had provided the courts with the underpants she wore after she was raped and the pair she wore after she took a shower six hours after the rape.
Feng said that Lee had questions about the semen on the underwear because the spots looked similar and were lake-shaped, rather than strip-shaped, leading Lee to ask whether the spots were the result of discharge from the woman's vagina or had been smeared on by hand.
A man produces around 3cc to 5cc of semen by a single ejaculation, Lee said in his statement, adding that it would be suspicious if the spots of semen on the two pieces of underwear totalled more than 5cc.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court said that "the semen on the underwear should be an arguable point and one which was in favor of the defendant Feng, but the Taiwan High Court failed to resolve the matter."
The Taiwan High Court ruled last August that the former lawmaker was guilty because the DNA collected from sperm taken from the housekeeper's vagina and her underwear matched that of Feng.
Feng said yesterday he was glad the Supreme Court was giving him a chance to prove his innocence and restore his reputation.
"I appreciate Dr. Lee's help with my lawsuit. I obtained his help after a couple of old friends helped me to contact him," Feng said.
He said his former housekeeper had framed him by taking semen from a condom he had used when having intercourse with his wife.
Feng was accused in February 2004 of raping his housekeeper, identified only as Rose, in November 2003.
After the scandal erupted, Feng paid Rose NT$800,000 and sent her back to the Philippines. Rose's supporters said the cash was hush money.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
SECOND SPEECH: All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist the CCP, despite their differences, the president said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday discussed how pro-Taiwan and pro-Republic of China (ROC) groups can agree to maintain solidarity on the issue of protecting Taiwan and resisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The talk, delivered last night at Taoyuan’s Hakka Youth Association, was the second in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. Citing Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) slogan that solidarity brings strength, Lai said it was a call for political parties to find consensus amid disagreements on behalf of bettering the nation. All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist
By refusing to agree spending increases to appease US President Donald Trump, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threatened to derail a summit that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte needs to run smoothly for the sake of the military alliance’s future survival. Ahead of yesterday’s gathering in The Hague, Netherlands, things were going off the rails. European officials have expressed irritation at the spoiler role that Sanchez is playing when their No. 1 task is to line up behind a pledge to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Rutte needed to keep Spain in line while preventing others such as Slovakia