A young couple who were caught on video allegedly engaging in oral sex on a Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit (KMRT) train were relieved to have the case dismissed by prosecutors on Tuesday.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office said it had decided not to prosecute because the male university student said he suffers from Asperger syndrome, a disorder which leads him at times to have uncontrolled sexual urges and disturbed emotions.
The young man, surnamed Huang (黃), said he acted on a spur of the moment impulse when in April he asked a friend, a high-school student surnamed Lin (林), to perform oral sex on him.
Huang said that he had a jacket covering Lin to avoid attracting the attention of other passengers and did not intend for the act to be for public display.
Prosecutors accepted Huang’s explanation and dismissed the case.
The incident drew widespread media attention and went viral on the Internet, because a Hong Kong tourist saw what was happening and filmed the couple in action, then posted the video on YouTube.
The video became a hot item with a wide circulation in other countries within a few days as netizens enthusiastically debated the incident.
In the judicial citation, police said the couple was on the KMRT’s Red Line at about 5:30pm on April 20. Huang used his jacket to cover the lower part of his body, then he undid the zipper on his trousers to allow Lin to fondle him. Lin then lowered her head and performed fellatio on Huang until the train arrived at Gangshan South Station.
The citation said that at about 6:34pm the couple took the return journey on the Red Line to Kaohsiung International Airport Station, whereupon Huang had Lin perform oral sex on him a second time.
Huang said in his statement to police that something triggered a sexual fantasy in his mind and resulted in him having an erection, so he asked Lin to engage in the sex act, under the cover of the jacket to prevent others seeing what was happening.
Lin said there were only about six or seven other passengers in the carriage and when she was performing fellatio the couple checked whether other people were watching. Both insisted they had not committed any criminal act.
After examining the video, prosecutors concurred that the incident was not premeditated and that Huang had used a jacket to cover Lin and prevent a full public display.
Prosecutors also said that although Huang showed signs of sexual arousal, he did not overreact and draw the attention of the other passengers and therefore it could not be deemed an act of public indecency, so they had decided not to prosecute.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on