Prosecutors yesterday indicted former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳) for allegedly soliciting people to storm the Taipei Detention Center in Tucheng (土城), Taipei County, to “rescue” detained former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
On July 10, the day of the former president’s last detention hearing at the Taipei District Court, Tsai and hundreds of the former president’s supporters gathered outside the courthouse to protest against Chen’s continued detention.
Outside the courthouse, Tsai allegedly shouted amongst the hundreds of protesters that if the court decided not to release Chen, they should rush into the detention center to “rescue Chen Shui-bian.”
He also allegedly solicited people to storm into the courtroom to “make the court shut down operations.”
Chiayi District prosecutors listed several instances in which Tsai, a former Chiayi legislator, allegedly obstructed the maintenance of public order by encouraging people to storm into the detention center, including on March 18, when he allegedly told a press conference that supporters of Chen should gather at the Taipei Detention Center and storm into the prison like the storming of the Bastille in France in 1789.
Prosecutors also allege that Tsai, through written messages, public speeches and the media, solicited others to commit crimes in order to cause damage to the detention center and the civil servants who work there in an attempt to help the former president escape.
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