The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it would investigate allegations of sexual harassment against a senior Turkish envoy after it was determined that he does not have diplomatic immunity.
Halil Ibrahim Dokuyucu, deputy head of the Turkish Trade Office in Taipei, on July 3 allegedly fondled a woman at a bar in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) and scuffled with police, who were called in after the incident.
During questioning at a police station, Dokuyucu said that he had diplomatic immunity.
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it has determined that Dokuyucu does not have that privilege, and the same holds true for Taiwanese representatives in Turkey, under the terms of a bilateral agreement.
That information has been conveyed to the Ministry of Justice, Taiwan’s representative office in Turkey and Turkey’s representative office in Taipei, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Eleanor Wang (王珮玲) said.
Upon receipt of the information, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said it would investigate the allegations against Dokuyucu, which include sexual harassment and obstruction of police officers in the discharge of their duties.
The woman, a project manager at a technology firm, said she was pressing charges against Dokuyucu and would seek NT$1 million (US$31,576) in damages.
In a newspaper interview on Wednesday, the woman said that if she won the suit, she would donate the money to two charity groups that assist victims of sexual harassment.
Over the past few weeks, the foreign ministry sought to verify the status of Taiwanese and Turkish envoys in regard to immunity, but Turkish authorities have not responded to its inquiries, Wang said.
To date, there have been no comments on the issue from the Turkish Trade Office in Taipei and the local media have been unable to contact Dokuyucu, who is said to be on vacation and not in Taiwan.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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