The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed an amendment expanding “pre-emptive detention” to include suspects in the sexual exploitation of minors, the homicide of young children, fraud and drunk driving as stipulated in the Criminal Code, among other offenses.
The expansion of the grounds for pre-emptive detention — intended to prevent reoffending — followed a Judicial Yuan amendment, which consolidated proposals by lawmakers across the political spectrum.
The cross-party proposals for Article 101-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure shared a common focus on crimes related to images of children and youth sexual exploitation.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Pei-yu (陳培瑜) said she initiated the amendment in response to the rising number of cases involving the reproduction, distribution and possession of sexually exploitative images of minors.
The version proposed by the Taiwan People’s Party highlighted the growing severity of fraud, in addition to the issues of child and youth sexual images and organized crime that the party said have worsened over the years.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲) said in his version that expanding “pre-emptive detention” is necessary to safeguard potential victims and would facilitate the investigative process.
The expansion covers the homicide of children younger than seven, offenses involving abuse and obstruction of an adolescent’s well-being, and offenses involving sexual images, such as distributing sexual images for public viewing, producing fake sexual images, and aggravated crimes in the same category.
The expansion also covers fraud and drunk driving offenses punishable under the Criminal Code — cases referred for criminal prosecution — rather than those categorized as administrative breaches under the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例).
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