Film director Chang Tso-chi (張作驥) has to serve a prison term for sexual assault after the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a ruling and sentence imposed by lower courts.
Chang appealed to the Supreme Court after the Taiwan High Court in October last year upheld the guilty verdict and sentence of three years and 10 months that was issued by the Taipei District Court the previous June.
Chang was convicted of sexually assaulting a female colleague at his studio in Taipei in May 2013.
Chang has “disrespected women’s right to make their own decisions and caused the victim unforgettable mental and physical pain,” the Supreme Court said in its ruling.
Chang cannot appeal and will be required to the serve the prison sentence.
Prosecutors said the woman, who is a screenwriter, was invited to join Chang and some of his colleagues for after-dinner drinks at his Taipei studio on May 13, 2013. The woman was left alone with Chang after the others left at 2am and he sexually assaulted her at a time when she was too drunk to resist, prosecutors said. They said that when the woman realized what had happened, she called the police.
Prosecutors presented DNA evidence against Chang, which they said was obtained from semen samples taken from the woman’s clothing and vagina.
Chang rose to fame in the mid-1990s after he directed several films that depicted the lives of marginalized people in society, including Soul of a Demon (蝴蝶), Ah Chung (忠仔) and The Best of Times (美麗時光), which won him major prizes at international film festivals.
He was awarded the 2011 National Award for Arts.
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