Taipei District Court yesterday handed down a 40-day jail sentence to a man convicted of splashing liquid onto a car in which China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) was traveling during his visit to Taiwan last year.
The ruling can be appealed.
Chang Yung-chang (張永昌), a legislative aide to Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津), has been charged by district prosecutors with obstruction of individual freedom.
In their ruling, district court judges wrote that Chang used balloons filled with “contaminated milk” and threw them toward the car Chen was riding in.
The idea to use “contaminated milk” stemmed from last year’s melamine scandal, when it was discovered that some brands of powdered milk produced in China were laced with melamine, an industrial chemical that could cause kidney stones if ingested. Some contaminated milk powder products were sold in Taiwan.
Chang was also convicted of throwing himself onto the hood of the car in an attempt to prevent it from driving away. However, he was immediately taken away by security guards and later questioned and indicted by prosecutors.
Based on evidence such as video recordings and photos of the incident, district court judges found that Chang’s actions showed he purposely threw the water balloon and leapt onto the car to prevent it from moving forward. Judges therefore sentenced him to 40 days detention, which can be converted to a fine.
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