Activist groups yesterday joined the White Rose Social Care Association to stage a sit-in at the Judicial Yuan, to protest the ruling in a sexual harassment case involving a court judge, and deliver a petition with three key demands for reform in the judiciary.
About 60 activists sat in the plaza in front of the Judicial Yuan, holding up banners with slogans. Each protester held a white rose, a symbol of innocence and purity that was adopted in the original 2010 White Rose Movement, after the courts handed down lenient sentences in two cases involving the rape of underage girls and sparked widespread public anger.
At the peaceful sit-in, the protesters shouted: “Justice is dead” and “Refuse dinosaur judges,” which in Taiwan refers to judges who are regarded as outdated and often give rulings contrary to the public’s expectations.
Photo: Huang Hsin-po, Taipei Times
“We are here to protest the judiciary for the leniency shown to [Taipei High Administrative Court] judge Chen Hung-pin (陳鴻斌) in the second ruling on his sexual harassment case against his female assistant,” the association’s chairwoman Liang Yu-fang (梁毓芳) said.
Chen was dismissed from his job in the first ruling. However, the second ruling by the Judicial Yuan’s disciplinary court allowed Chen to keep his job and his pension, and he was fined NT$2.16 million (US$74,049).
Liang released a statement that listed the petition’s key demands as: a new judge taking office must have at least five years of working experience as a lawyer, judges must be limited to six-year terms, and people convicted of repeated sexual crimes and shown to be a danger to the public must not be released from prison based on an individual judge’s decision.
“The courts are not places for ‘rookie’ law practitioners,” the statement added. “Therefore we demand that judges have worked as lawyers for at least five years, and that they have worked within a specialized field for at least 80 percent of their litigation cases.”
“Judges should have close links with the prevailing attitudes and viewpoints of the public. Judges must not come from a tiny circle of society or hand out judgments based on their personal opinions, contrary to the will of the majority,” it said.
“This is what we have experienced of the arrogance typical to a group of people who believe they are society’s intellectual elites... Often we see them manipulate the judiciary at will, and we have no mechanisms to rein them in,” the statement said.
“This is because our system gives judges jobs for life, and nobody can touch them in any way. After they pass the examination to enter the Judges Academy, they can indulge in playing with the justice system. If they make a mistake, they can continue playing their games because they have fellow judges to protect them,” it said.
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