Three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei city councilors were indicted yesterday for violating the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法) when they slapped white paint on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) emblem on the Jingfumen (景福門) last year.
On May 27 last year, Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄), Liu Yao-ren (劉耀仁) and Huang Hsiang-chun (黃向群) accused Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs of taking advantage of repair work on the Jingfumen and three other historical gates to paint the KMT’s emblem on the gate. They climbed the scaffolding and painted over the white-and-blue emblem in protest against what they said was a “symbol of dictatorship.”
Prosecutors yesterday said the trio damaged the historical monument, which is preserved for its cultural, architectural and artistic values. Despite employing professionals to wash away the paint and repaint it, its original outer appearance could not be restored.
The trio’s trespassing — at the time the gate was closed for renovation — and defacing of the monument constituted vandalism of a historical monument, the prosecutors said.
According to the Department of Cultural Affairs, the KMT emblems were first carved and painted in 1955 when the KMT modified the Qing Dynasty gates.
The Jingfumen was designated a historical site in September 1998.
In response to the indictment, the trio yesterday said the KMT emblem was not there when they held a march in that area before the incident, but was only painted on shortly after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office.
The three could face up to five years in jail or fines of up to NT$1 million.
In a bid to highlight the absurdity of the justice, Chuang said if the court were to rule them guilty, the three of them would rather do the jail time than paying the fine.
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