Former lawmaker Lo Fu-chu (羅福助) yesterday purchased half-page newspaper ads in which he apologized to PFP Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) for assaulting the woman in the legislature last year.
"I apologize to Legislator Lee, her family and society for my mistaken behavior," Lo said in the ad, which was published in the United Daily News and the China Times yesterday.
The gangster-politician assaulted Lee during a meeting of the legislature's Education and Culture Committee on March 28 last year.
Lo was filmed on closed circuit television slapping Lee in the face.
Lee had intimated that Lo had attempted to interfere in the selection process of board members for the Jin Wen Institute of Technology, whose former chairman Chang Wan-li (
Lo pulled Lee by the hair during the meeting after Lee suggested that he was a gangster.
The former lawmaker has been detained on fraud, breach of trust and usury charges since April 10.
KMT Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (
Lee, who had filed a lawsuit against Lo over the attack, said yesterday that she would drop the case. "I feel comforted by receiving an apology such as this," Lee said.
According to Lee, Lo's sons have recently been talking to her attorney, Lee Fu-tien (李復甸), in order to settle the matter. The two parties reached a consensus Monday.
In the Taipei District Court's second hearing on the suit on March 8, attorneys for both parties agreed to seek a private, out-of-court settlement.
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