The Taipei District Court on Friday found activist Hung Chung-yen (洪崇晏) and three others guilty of insulting a public official or office during a protest in 2014 that led to scuffles with law enforcement officers.
The protest came on the heels of the Sunflower movement after Hung and other campaigners circulated messages on social media calling for people to “walk by” the Taipei Chungcheng District First Police Precinct, one block from the Legislative Yuan Building, on April 11, 2014.
Hung was sentenced to 55 days in prison.
The court found him not guilty of violating provisions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法).
Hsiao Nien-cheng (蕭年呈) was found guilty on two counts of offenses of obstructing an officer in discharge of duties and given a 80-day prison term.
The court sentenced Bunun Aboriginal activist Savungaz Valincinann to 40 days in prison and Jen Catholic University Student Association president Tao Han (陶漢) to 30 days in jail.
The sentences can be commuted to fines.
Hung said he will appeal the ruling.
“It was sad to hear the guilty verdict during the final days of the year. President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is in government now, but it feels like our nation is still stuck in the past,” he said. “I hope to see the legislature pass amendments to change the Assembly and Parade Act and abolish restricted zones around government buildings, and do away with the offense of insult to a public official or office. On these offenses, they should not seek criminal prosecution; they can be dealt with in a civil litigation lawsuit for damage compensation.”
“In such cases, even if they seek for punishment under civil litigation, it would still be an infringement on people’s right to freedom of speech. The public should be able to express its opinion when the government undertakes bad policies against the wishes of the people,” he added.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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