The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a High Court decision to convict former lawmaker Fung Hu-hsiang (馮滬祥) of raping a Philippine caregiver, and sentenced him to three years and four months in prison.
According to the verdict, the former New Party legislator raped the woman, who was hired by his family, at his home in Taipei in 2004. After the rape, she contacted a friend, who informed the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei of the abuse.
An employee from the office accompanied her to a local hospital for treatment and the hospital reported the rape to the police, according to the court.
The woman returned to the Philippines after signing an NT$800,000 settlement agreement with Fung.
In the first and second trials and the first retrial, Fung was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of rape. In the second retrial, he was sentenced to one year on charges of taking advantage of his authority to have sex with someone, but the prison term was reduced to six months, with the penalties commutable to a fine.
In the third and fourth retrials, Fung was found not guilty after the woman retreacted her original police report and denied that she had been raped. However, Fung was again sentenced to four years at the fifth retrial.
In the sixth retrial, the Taiwan High Court found Fung guilty and sentenced him to three years and four months in prison.
The Supreme Court’s verdict on Friday is final.
In a statement issued on Friday, Fung accused the Democratic Progressive Party government of political revenge and judicial persecution, and said the verdict is meant to damage his reputation.
He said he is innocent and accused the police of framing him.
Fung said he would serve his prison term regarding the act as a kind of “[religious] training,” and hopes that his compatriots would continue to work for the cause of “revitalizing Chunghwa [China]” in spite of the oppression of the “Taiwanese independence forces,” adding that he firmly believes that “unification [with China] will definitely win and Taiwanese independence will lose.”
He said he is proud to “sacrifice for the grand mission of unification with China.”
Additional Reporting by Hsiang Cheng-chen
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS