Police officers accused of using excessive force during the eviction of protesters occupying the Executive Yuan complex in March will be identified within two weeks or the SWAT commander would be penalized, Minister of the Interior Chen Wei-jen (陳威仁) told lawmakers yesterday
The minister and National Police Agency Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) appeared before a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee to discuss alleged police brutality against protesters and the media during anti-government protests in March and last month.
Showing photographs of a police officer swinging a baton, junior-high school teacher Lin Ming-hui (林明慧) with blood all over his face and dentist Wang Hsin-kai (王心愷) suffering an epilectic fit after being beaten by police taken during the eviction of protesters from the Executive Yuan from late on March 23 through the early hours of March 24, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) questioned how long it would take to find the officers involved.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“It has been more than a month — and will be soon two months — since the police brutality against protesters occurred. The public needs to know which officers from which units were involved,” Tuan said to Chen and Wang during a question-and-answer session.
“The images are so clear, and if you cannot figure out who the officers are, can you at least identify which units these officers belong to? How long do we have to wait?” Tuan said.
Chen told Tuan that the officer pictured swinging a baton is an officer at Taipei City’s Zhongzheng First Police Precinct, but he would not reveal his identity.
The identities of the officers who beat Lin and Wang Hsin-kai are not yet known, but he is certain that they are affiliated with Taipei City Police Department’s (TCPD) SWAT unit, Chen said.
“The TCPD was the only police department that deployed a SWAT team to clear the Executive Yuan complex at the time,” the minister said. “The officers will certainly be penalized if they were involved in any misconduct.”
Wang Cho-chiun told Tuan that the Taipei police have already been informed that the department’s SWAT commander will be penalized “if we fail to identify the particular officers involved in misconduct.”
Asked if the result of the probe could be known in two weeks, Chen was initially hesitant to agree to the time frame, but eventually promised to meet Tuan’s request.
During the committee meeting, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) asked if the solicitation of donations by a campaign to recall KMT lawmakers violated the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法).
“I was especially shocked when I saw that an online platform for the campaign also accepts donations from online payment systems based in China,” Wu said. “China may exert influence in Taiwanese politics by making donations.”
“The Criminal Investigation Bureau should look into it,” Wu said.
In a Facebook post, the recall campaign said it has only received two donations through China-based payment systems, but both donors are from Taiwan. Only Taiwanese are eligible to sign the petition to recall lawmakers, the organizers said.
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