More than 50 women's organizations mounted a joint protest against a panel of High Court judges who recently acquitted a clergyman of sexual assault.
Unnerved by threats of a libel suit, the Garden of Hope Foundation (勵馨基金會), a non-profit organization for victims of sexual assault, initiated the campaign yesterday against the acquittal of Tang Tai-sheng (唐台生) in June by a panel of three High Court judges.
Tang is a church leader from Taoyuan.
The women's group says that despite testimony from experts and more than 30 victims, the judges, who they said seem "aloof from the real world," still found Tang not guilty of the charges of sexual assault.
Tang, 52, had been charged with sexually assaulting his teenage followers during communion gatherings. He had been found guilty and sentenced to more than three years in prison.
However, the High Court judges panel reversed the conviction and acquitted Tang on June 21.
The judges said they found that Tang's acts did not constitute sexual assault because the victims failed to resist the clergyman's advances.
Moreover, the judges determined the experts' opinions were only "advisory" and did not necessarily carry weight to determine the facts in the case.
At a joint press conference yesterday, the women's groups referred to a series of court rulings on sexual assault cases as a reflection of the judges' "ignorance" and "disregard" for women's personal liberty.
"It's a serious setback to the movement for women's personal liberty, which we have fought for for so many years," said Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容), chief executive officer of the Garden of Hope Foundation.
A taped statement by one of the victims of Tang's assaults was played at the news conference.
"No one really knew that, each morning I woke up feeling so disgusted that I vomited at the toilet, until I spoke out the terrible thing the man has done to me," the young woman said. "I've regretted filing a complaint against the man because his wife and sister-in-law have constantly threatened to expose our names to the media and cursed us over the telephone," she said.
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