Dog activist doesn't have his day in Taipei court

Ko Szu-hai (柯賜海), the well-known activist for the plight of stray dogs who often shows up in daily TV news coverage, was beaten up in the hallways of the Taipei District Court yesterday.

While more than 40 reporters waited outside the No. 7 courtroom -- where the Chu Mei-feng (璩美鳳) sex-VCD scandal hearing was being held -- Hsu Shen-pu (許神僕), who is being sued by Ko for illegally occupying a private household, showed up and held a huge poster that read, "Ko is a liar and gangster!"

Ko immediately began to argue with Hsu, and they soon began to fight each other.

Both of them were hit many times and began bleeding.

Hsu and Ko began fighting on the second floor of the court building. Hsu then then pushed Ko down the stairs and the two continued fighting on the first floor.

Court security guards tried to break the fight up, but the two men still managed to beat each other four times after they were separated. The fight ended when Hsu left the court building.

"Ko threatened me and said that I illegally occupied his household," Hsu said.

"But he never showed me any legal document to prove that he is the owner of the place. I don't care what he'll do to me. I am ready for all the hearings and trials in the future and will fight with him until the end."

Ko said he did not want to argue with Hsu and said that he has asked for help from the police to kick Hsu out from his place.

"However, I don't understand why so many court security guards at the scene did not stop him when he was beating me," Ko said.

"How can they allow violence like this in the court's hallway?"

Ko is famous for a series of high-profile and off-beat campaigns fought ostensibly on behalf of stray dogs, including taking groups of strays with him to protest at government offices and bombarding the phone lines of businesses with repeat computerized telephone calls.