An Army first lieutenant has been ordered to pay a soldier’s family NT$2.7 million (US$93,000) in compensation because his harsh punishment of the soldier led to his suicide, the Taoyuan District Court said in a ruling yesterday.
The district court said that on April 19, 2010, First Lieutenant Kuo Ching-chih (郭景志), who served in an army missile unit in Taoyuan County, was upset that Su Yung-sheng (蘇詠聖) had not saluted him.
Kuo humiliated Su before his fellow soldiers and said: “I will see you give me a salute ... I will punish you until you die.”
Kuo asked Su to hold 11 wooden rifles all day long without eating or going to the toilet.
Kuo later asked Su to clean toilets with a T65 rifle on his back.
The court said that although Su pleaded for mercy, cried and showed injuries he had sustained to his hands, Kuo continued his punishment.
Su could not bear it and jumped from a building at the base and died, the district court said.
The court added that Kuo could appeal the ruling with the Taiwan High Court.
The High Military Court found Kuo of guilty of harming a soldier with inhuman methods and causing the individual’s death and sentenced him to seven years and two months in prison.
Several military officials were also subjected to severe disciplinary action in the case.
Su’s family also filed a lawsuit with the Taoyuan District Court asking the Army Command Headquarters to provide NT$6 million in compensation. The case is still pending in the district court.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
RSS