Several of the "red-clad" protesters who participated in massive rallies against President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) last year are planning to sue former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德), who led them in the protests.
According to Chung Tien-hua (鍾添華) and Chou Wei-kuang (周維光), who say that they were among the "red-clad" demonstrators who staged the protests in September and October, said they had collected endorsements for their cause from more than 200 others participants.
FRUITLESS
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The fruitless demonstrations, held in front of the Presidential Office and across from Taipei's main train station, were part of an effort to pressure Chen to resign from the presidency or to succeed in getting him deposed over corruption scandals related to his family.
Chung and Chou announced their intention to sue at a seminar sponsored by Shih's campaign to discuss the case of Chen's special "state affairs fund," in which first lady Wu Shu-jen (
BREACH OF TRUST
The two men said that they will file a lawsuit against Shih with the Taipei Prosecutor's Office, charging fraud and breach of trust, when the number of people endorsing the move hits their "target number," which was not disclosed.
Expressing their dissatisfaction with Shih and displaying a roll of the more than 200 signatures that they collected, the pair accused Shih of unilaterally deciding to shut down a "red-clad house" near the Presidential Office and of calling his former supporters "homeless" and "villains."
The street demonstrations led by Shih ended late last year, after he collected millions of dollars in donations to finance the protests.
No response was available as of press time from Shih.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying
RSS