Prosecutors yesterday indicted a South Korean assistant professor at National Chengchi University for alleged sexual harassment of his female students.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said there was sufficient evidence to indict the acadmic, surnamed Park, who teaches in the university’s Department of Korean Language and Culture, following testimony from students who said Park groped and pinched them, despite their resistance.
The case came to light in June when two female students made accusations about groping and later filed complaints with police.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
An investigation was conducted by the university’s gender equality committee, which found “serious violations” by Park and as a result recommended terminating his contract.
Park was charged under the Sexual Harassment Prevention Act (性騷擾防治法).
A female student surnamed Yeh (葉) testified that Park took advantage of a one-on-one situation in his office to touch and grope her several times, prosecutors said.
“Park stroked me just below my clavicle. He blew into my palm, then slapped my buttocks twice. He also pinched my cheek and my waist several times, despite my resistance,” Yeh said.
Yeh said that when she resisted, Park said: “You should not do that to your professor. You are overreacting. You are acting as though I am a pervert. You are always thinking about me, right? If you want me, just let me know.”
Another female student gave a similar account, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors interviewed other students as witnesses, who said they had seen Park putting his hands on students and hugging them openly.
Park has denied the allegations.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) in June called on prosecutors to investigate the case, saying that Park had accused a female student of making up stories and had continued to make advances, despite her firm objections.
At that time, Park filed a lawsuit against Yeh and Rick Chu (朱立熙), a lecturer at the university and former Taipei Times editor-in-chief who had backed the students, for damage to his reputation.
Chu has filed a counterclaim against Park for making false accusations, adding that 202 students have signed a petition accusing Park of ineptitude, including 111 from other departments.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification