The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office yesterday said it will begin to investigate one of its own prosecutors after a female plaintiff filed a sexual harassment suit, alleging the prosecutor had taken her hand and read her palm during an investigation hearing on Thursday.
"It is my understanding that the prosecutor asked for the plaintiff's permission before he did so. However, whether it was appropriate behavior during an investigative hearing will be decided by the prosecutors who are investigating it," said Lin Bang-liang (林邦樑), spokesman for the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office.
The alleged incident occurred during an investigation hearing into a slander case filed by Tsai Chi-ling against Huang Chih-chun (
Taipei Prosecutor Tsai Hung-chan (
Tsai Chi-ling has said she is Huang Chih-chun's former girlfriend and alleges he and his wife called her a "psycho" on a television program last year.
The couple has, however, denied there was any relationship between Tsai Chi-ling and Huang Chih-chun.
On Thursday morning, Tsai Hung-chan summoned Tsai Chi-ling to gather more information on the case. As is typical for such hearings, it was a closed-door meeting between the prosecutor and plaintiff.
According to Tsai Chi-ling, during the hearing Tsai Hung-chan suddenly left his seat, walked toward her, took her hand and read her palm.
She said that he then told her, "According to my understanding from reading your palm, you are a woman who would constantly cheat on your man."
"This is ridiculous and I took that as sexual harassment," Tsai Chi-ling said. "In addition, when he approached me, I smelled alcohol on him."
Meanwhile, newly-assigned Minister of Justice Morley Shih (
"I know that he is fond of palm reading and often does so for friends and co-workers. It is totally OK," Shih said.
"But it is not appropriate if it happens during a hearing. We will punish him for this if necessary," he said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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