President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has heard the call of the White Rose Movement and is urging swift passage of a draft bill to regulate the certification, performance and ethics of judges, the Presidential Office said in a statement issued yesterday.
The statement came in response to a rally by thousands of demonstrators in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard last night calling for incompetent judges to be dismissed. Demonstrators also called for legislation to better protect children and people with disabilities against sexual abuse.
The demonstrators, many joined by their children, handed out white roses to call for better care of minors.
PHOTO: SAM YEH, AFP
The White Rose Movement, initiated by local netizens and organizations dedicated to the welfare of women and children, emerged amid public fury stirred by the recent acquittals and light sentences given to people accused of molesting children because the judges ruled that it could not be proven that the victims had objected to the actions of the defendants.
In one case, Supreme Court judges rejected an appeal to convict a suspect accused of molesting a three-year-old girl because prosecutors failed to prove the alleged offense was committed against the girl’s wishes. The case was sent back to a lower court for retrial.
In another case, a judge ruled that prosecutors failed to prove a six-year-old girl had shown “strong will” in fighting off the perpetrator, and found him guilty of “having sex with a person under 14 years of age,” which came with a sentence of three years and two months in prison, rather than finding him guilty of committing “sexual assault,” which is punishable by three to 10 years in jail.
The rulings led to 300,000 Internet users lodging online complaints demanding the judges be fired and calling for an overhaul of the judiciary system.
“We need laws to protect children who don’t know how to fend off sex abuse,” Garden of Hope Foundation executive director Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) said.
The Judicial Yuan has since agreed to push for an amendment that regards sex with children under the age of seven as rape, which is punishable by a minimum sentence of seven years.
Giving his support for tougher penalties for child molesters, Ma said in the statement that he attached great importance to judicial reform and hoped that a draft of the judges’ act approved by the Cabinet and sent to the legislature on Thursday, would pass in a speedy manner.
During the legislative procedure, it is necessary to seek opinions from all circles before reaching a consensus, the statement said.
Equally important is the on-the-job training of judges and prosecutors, it said, adding that the Judicial Yuan and the Ministry of Justice must step up efforts to organize training programs.
It is worth considering cooperating with expert witnesses when the court was hearing cases of sexual assault on children, it added.
As for the compulsory medical treatment of pedophiles, the statement said Ma would like to see related agencies get on with the program, complementing other prevention measures, such as circulating notices when a pedophile moved into a community and observing high-risk families.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA AND AP
FIREPOWER: On top of the torpedoes, the military would procure Kestrel II anti-tank weapons systems to replace aging license-produced M72 LAW launchers Taiwan is to receive US-made Mark 48 torpedoes and training simulators over the next three years, following delays that hampered the navy’s operational readiness, the Ministry of National Defense’s latest budget proposal showed. The navy next year would acquire four training simulator systems for the torpedoes and take receipt of 14 torpedoes in 2027 and 10 torpedoes in 2028, the ministry said in its budget for the next fiscal year. The torpedoes would almost certainly be utilized in the navy’s two upgraded Chien Lung-class submarines and the indigenously developed Hai Kun, should the attack sub successfully reach operational status. US President Donald Trump
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS