The High Court yesterday found fugitive South Korean academic Park Jae-kyung guilty of sexual harassment, upholding a ruling by the Taipei District Court, which had sentenced him to 14 months in jail.
Park fled Taiwan last year when travel restrictions against him lapsed.
Park began teaching as a contract assistant professor at National Chengchi University’s Department of Korean Language and Culture in February 2017, but was dismissed in July that year following accusations of sexual harassment by several female students.
The Taipei District Court in December 2018 found Park guilty and sentenced him to 14 months in prison, commutable to a fine of NT$420,000 (US$13,848). The court also imposed travel restrictions against him.
Park and his lawyer filed an appeal with the High Court, which did not extend the travel restrictions after they expired in April last year.
Park left on a flight to South Korea in July last year.
Yesterday’s High Court ruling was final, but critics said justice was not served, as Park has evaded punishment due to judges’ oversight.
Several students said Park had taken advantage of his position to grope and pinch them during private consultations.
A female student surnamed Yeh (葉) said Park touched and groped her several times when she visited his office.
“Park stroked me just below my clavicle. He blew into my palm, then slapped my buttocks twice. He also pinched my cheek and my waist several times, despite my protests,” she said.
Investigators said that several other students detailed similar claims, while others said they had witnessed Park putting his hands on students and hugging them in class.
The university’s gender equality committee investigated the complaints: nine female students accused Park of sexual harassment, while 102 students signed a petition calling for his dismissal, alleging that he had verbally abused and threatened students, and was not fully prepared for his lectures.
Two female students had also sued Park and asked for compensation of NT$1 million each. A Taipei court in December last year ordered Park to pay NT$500,000 and NT$300,000 respectively to the two plaintiffs.
As Taiwan and South Korea do not have a legal assistance agreement, it will be difficult for the two students to obtain compensation.
Separately, the Taipei District Court yesterday announced that it would not proceed with the prosecution of former High Court judge Yang Ping-cheng (楊炳禎), who was accused of touching a nurse’s buttocks during a hospital stay last year.
As Yang had reached an out-of-court settlement with the woman, the case has been dropped, a court release said.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS