Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Pasuya Yao (姚文智) yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Chinese-language Want Weekly, after the magazine published a story alleging three “chance encounters” with a woman in an apartment building.
The magazine yesterday reported that Yao was seen wearing a cap and a mask entering and leaving an apartment building in Taipei shortly before or shortly after a younger woman with long wavy hair entered or left the same building.
The report said the photographs were taken in January 2013 and the article was highlighted on the cover with the title “Pasuya Yao secretly changing his outfit, encounters a young woman with wavy hair three times.”
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Yao went to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday morning to bring charges against Want Want China Times Group chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), Want Weekly chairman Lee Yu-sheng (李玉生) and its representative, Li Shi-wei (李世偉), for aggravated defamation under the Criminal Code and for spreading rumors for the purpose of making a candidate lose an election under the Civil Servants Election And Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法).
Yao said that as a legislator in 2013, he opposed the business group’s move to acquire cable television services owned by China Network Systems (CNS), so the group is using its media outlets to defame him.
Publishing the article three days before the election is an example of how the group has been “bullying him and practically intervening in the election,” Yao said.
Asked why he entered the building wearing a cap and a mask and how his wife responded to the news, Yao said the article tried to mislead people.
He said he wore a cap and a mask because he had a cold at the time and the weather was cold, adding that he and his wife laughed when they saw the article.
Yao said he had also filed two complaints against Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Tuesday for spreading rumors.
Yao said Ko publicly claimed that he had proposed to demolish the Taipei Dome, when he only said he would terminate the contract with the current contractor.
Yao said Ko had also publicly claimed that he said he had “spent less money on his election campaign, which is hard to believe.” Yao said his publicized spending has already surpassed Ko’s spending.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) said in a radio interview that he believes there are foreign forces intervening in the elections, because they are concerned how the results would affect cross-strait relations.
Ting said he is against the referendum proposal to rename Taiwan’s national sports team from “Chinese Taipei” to “Taiwan” for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, because it might result in the nation’s athletes being unable to compete in the Games.
He urged Ko and President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to clarify their stance on the issue.
Meanwhile, a group of physicians in Taipei voiced their support for Ko, and seven members of the public ran a half-page newspaper advertisement touting Ko’s achievements.
Ko said he did not recognize the names of the people who paid for the ad.
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