The father of a woman who died last year at a hotel drug party yesterday condemned the judicial system for ordering a retrial and nullifying the prison sentence handed to party organizer Chu Chia-lung (朱家龍).
A 21-year-old woman surnamed Kuo (郭) died after losing consciousness at the party due to her ingestion of para-methoxyamphetamine (PMA), a synthetic drug with psychedelic effects, and other illegal drugs, forensic analysis showed.
Investigators said that Chu had in December last year paid for a luxury suite at the W Hotel in Taipei for five days to party with friends and take drugs.
Chu and his friends supplied food, drinks and drugs, and paid female escorts from “modeling agencies” for sexual services, prosecutors said, adding that Kuo was one of several women who came and went over the five days.
Kuo’s family said that she had moved to Taipei from Taitung County to work as a model, not for a sex escort business.
In the first and second rulings, Chu was handed a 10-year prison sentence and was detained pending appeal, while others involved in the case were handed terms ranging from four years to nearly 11 years in jail.
The Supreme Court on Thursday invalidated the previous rulings and ordered a retrial at the High Court, meaning that Chu’s term has been nullified, pending a new verdict.
The Supreme Court said that judges in the second ruling failed to establish a direct link between PMA and other drug traces found in Kuo’s body with those supplied at the party.
Kuo had also seen doctors for a kidney problem, which might have inhibited normal kidney excretion processes, meaning that the drug residue might have accumulated before she arrived at the party, the court ruled.
“I am very disappointed at the Supreme Court’s decision,” Kuo’s father said. “It is very painful for me that I see no justice for my daughter... The judicial system is flawed and unfair, but I believe that God will eventually give her justice.”
“It is like when people play with crickets inside a bowl, and the crickets get bashed around and die. That was how they treated my daughter,” he said. “I cannot forgive them, but it is a game that wealthy people play.”
“Chu has never apologized to us. He is a perpetrator who has shown no remorse... We feel helpless, and that our society is unfair and unjust to working people like us,” he added.
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