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.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS