Several civic groups yesterday urged the legislature to adopt an independent mechanism to assess judges and prosecutors so that unsuitable ones may be eliminated.
The call comes in the wake of public criticism over recent cases in which offenders were given what critics decried as lenient sentences.
One of the controversial cases involves the ruling by the Kaohsiung District Court last month on Lin Yi-fang (林義芳) who was charged in February with “digitally raping” (with his hands) a six-year-old girl.
Rather than finding him guilty of “sexual assault,” which is punishable by three to 10 years in jail, the court said that because the girl “did not show a strong will” in fighting off her attacker, Lin was convicted of “having sex with person age under 14 years of age,” and was sentenced to three years and two months in prison.
“We are here to present our own version of a bill for evaluating judges and prosecutors, because we think that judges and prosecutors should be evaluated by an independent panel and that those who are found unsuitable by the panel after investigation should no longer serve on the bench,” Judicial Reform Foundation (JRF) executive director Lin Feng-jeng (林峰正) told a news conference yesterday, urging the legislature to pass the law in the new legislative session, which is slated to begin today.
“I’ve heard a judge saying things like ‘what’s the big deal about the right to work’ to an employee whom we helped in a lawsuit against the employer,” secretary-general of Taiwan Labour Front, Son Yu-lian (孫友聯) told the same press conference. “Judges like that are certainly not suitable to serve on the bench anymore.”
Hung Hsin-ping (洪心平), a specialist with the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, said that she has seen many women being treated unfairly in the court when her organization provided legal assistance to them.
While the Judicial Yuan has also proposed its own version of a bill to evaluate judges, JRF chairman Lin Yung-sung (林永頌) said theirs is better.
“The non-governmental version aims for an independent panel with some seats reserved for representatives from non-governmental representatives, while the Judicial Yuan wants to create a judiciary evaluation panel under the Judicial Yuan consisting of senior judges and prosecutors,” he said. “I think people would question the impartiality of a judiciary evaluation panel as proposed by the Judicial Yuan.”
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai