The Taiwan High Court yesterday sentenced former New Party legislator Elmer Fung (馮滬祥) to four years in prison for raping his Filipino housekeeper in 2004.
Fung was found guilty in the case’s seventh trial, but can still appeal to the Supreme Court.
Fung has been found guilty by the Taipei District Court and convicted three times by the High Court. However, after the woman appeared as a witness and withdrew her accusation, Fung was found not guilty by the High Court in the case’s fifth and sixth trials.
The woman, identified only as Rose, was hired by Fung to take care of his mother-in-law. Rose accused Fung of raping her on the afternoon of Jan. 23, 2004.
She provided as evidence the underwear she wore after the alleged rape as well as a pair she said she wore after taking a shower six hours after the incident.
After the woman filed the lawsuit, Fung agreed to pay her NT$800,000 in compensation, which Rose’s supporters claim was hush money.
Prosecutors and forensic scientists said DNA on the housekeeper’s underwear matched Fung’s. The victim’s injuries and her statements also corroborated the accusation that Fung had sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.
Fung told judges that his former housekeeper had framed him by taking semen from a condom he had used when having intercourse with his wife and smearing it on her underwear.
Yesterday’s ruling said that although Rose had withdrawn her accusation following the compensation, her original statement and statements from doctors at Mackay Memorial Hospital showed it was unlikely that the accusation of rape was fabricated.
Saying that Fung’s wife had visited Rose and held her while she was crying, the ruling questioned why Fung’s wife needed to console her if Rose had falsely accused Fung.
Fung said yesterday the ruling was ridiculous and that “political motivations” might be involved, adding that he would appeal.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man