The Taiwan High Court yesterday sentenced former Taiwan Association for Human Rights (台灣人權促進會) president Peter Huang (黃文雄) to four months in prison for returning to Taiwan in 1996 without first seeking permission from the government.
"Huang violated Article 3-1 of the National Security Law (國家安全法), so the court sentenced him to four months in prison, but the sentence could be waived in lieu of a NT$900 daily fine for the duration of the sentence," said Judge Tsai Yung-chang (蔡永昌).
The requirement to apply to re-enter the country was stipulated in the National Security Law, passed in 1987 when the government lifted martial law.
During his first trial on Feb. 15, 2000, Huang was sentenced to five months in jail by the Taipei District Court.
When approached by reporters yesterday afternoon, Huang said that the court decision is unconstitutional. Yesterday's ruling actually gave him an opportunity to apply for an interpretation of the article from the Council of Grand Justices.
"The verdict is not reasonable because the grand justices said in April that Taiwanese citizens have the right to travel abroad and return to the country without first applying to the Ministry of the Interior," Huang said.
"As a result, I think I will apply for another interpretation from the Council of Grand Justices after I speak with my lawyer."
In the meantime, Huang said that he will complete his four-month sentence instead of paying the fine.
When reviewing Huang's case, Tsai argued that Article 3-1 of the National Security Law is unconstitutional, so he filed the request to apply for an interpretation on behalf of Huang on Sept. 5, 2000.
On April 18 this year, grand justices agreed that the Immigration Law (入出國及移民法), which was passed in 2000 and gives everyone with household registration in Taiwan the right to travel freely, supersedes the National Security Law.
However, the interpretation applies only to those convicted under Article 3-1 of the National Security Law for crimes committed since May 21, 2000, when the Immigration Law came into effect. According to the grand justices, Huang's case is not one of them.
Huang was a key figure in the assassination attempt on then president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) in New York in 1970, for which he was blacklisted by the government.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those