The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it would file an appeal to a higher court after the Taipei District Court last month acquitted Sunflower movement activists of all charges stemming from the storming and occupation of the Legislative Yuan’s main chamber in 2014.
Among the main reasons cited for the appeal, prosecutors raised questions regarding the concept of “civil disobedience” which was cited in the March 31 ruling by the Taipei District Court as a legitimate and socially justifiable reason for the activists to protest attempts by legislators to rush through the approval process for the cross-strait service trade agreement.
“The court ruling cited the concept of ‘civil disobedience,’ which as yet has uncertain status in the legal system regarding judicial investigations of criminal cases. Therefore, it is necessary to re-examine the case, to confirm the court’s interpretation and its application,” a statement from the prosecutors’ office said.
The statement also disputed the reasons given in Taipei District Court’s ruling.
“There is no consensus regarding the criteria and standards on which to base a legal judgement on the cited ‘civil disobedience’ and ‘citizens’ right of resistance’ in academic treatise and interpretations by academics in Taiwan or other nations,” it said.
Prosecutors said that the concepts of “civil disobedience” and “citizens’ right of resistance” had never before been cited in a ruling in the nation’s courts and therefore the ruling might have been flawed.
They also questioned the court’s interpretation regarding the right to freedom of expression, actions done in the interest of public affairs, inciting others to commit an offense, and its interpretations of insulting a public official and insulting a government agency in the ruling.
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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