Four youths, who were falsely accused of burgling the villa of an heiress to the Shin Kong Group in March, took legal action against the police officers involved and requested compensation from the state totalling NT$2.1 million.
On March 29, the Yangmingshan home of Wu Ju-yueh
Two days after the break-in, Shihlin Precinct police arrested two neighborhood youths, surnamed Chien and Kuo.
Police arrested two friends of Chien the following day, claiming that Chien had pleaded guilty and implied there were other accomplices.
The youths were detained for four days and were released on April 4, when results of DNA tests did not match the samples taken from the house.
While the youths were in detention, the police leaked information about their involvement in the Yangmingshan burglary. As a result, the youths and their families were exposed in, and subsequently harassed by, the media.
Moreover, Chien's employer, who vouchsafed an alibi for the youth, had his home searched by police from the Shihlin Precinct, despite the lack of a valid warrant. He was also later identified in media reports as the burglary's "mastermind."
Joseph Lin
Furthermore, he said they have filed a request for NT$2.1 million in compensation with the Taipei City Police Department, which oversees the Shihlin Precinct.
Each of the four youths' families has requested compensation of NT$500,000.
The employer who was falsely accused of being an accomplice is also seeking NT$100,000 in state compensation for injuries to his reputation as a result of the illegal search on his home.
Lin said Wu slapped Chien several times during an interrogation and finally obtained a confession. Wu himself admitted to having slapped Chien, in response to councilors' questions during a session of the Taipei City Council following the youths' release.
Lin also said police had ruthlessly pressured the youths to plead guilty by telling them their other friends had testified against them.
The parents of the four, speaking yesterday at the court, blasted the police abuse of their sons' civil rights and spoke of the serious consequences of the incident.
"Since the arrest, my son has felt afraid of going out and could not get a job," said one of the mothers.
"Had the truth not been told, our neighbors might still look at us with contempt, as they did when my son was arrested," she said.
The father of another of the youths angrily said his son and he were both fired as a result of the incident. "The government should make up for our losses," he said.
The Control Yuan yesterday handed down impeachments against Shihlin Precinct police chief Hung and Chen Yi-te
Following an investigation into the case for evidence of civil rights abuse, the Control Yuan concluded yesterday Shihlin police had gravely abused the youths' rights by false arrests and illegally extracting confessions.
Hung and Chen, it said, were impeached for failing to supervise their subordinate policemen in handling the case of the four youths.
In addition, the Control Yuan also blamed the judge for having ordered the youths to be detained without due care.
Punishment for the three will be reviewed by the Committee on the Discipline of Public Functionaries.
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday decided to shelve proposed legislation that would give elected officials full control over their stipends, saying it would wait for a consensus to be reached before acting. KMT Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) last week proposed amendments to the Organic Act of the Legislative Yuan (立法院組織法) and the Regulations on Allowances for Elected Representatives and Subsidies for Village Chiefs (地方民意代表費用支給及村里長事務補助費補助條例), which would give legislators and councilors the freedom to use their allowances without providing invoices for reimbursement. The proposal immediately drew criticism, amid reports that several legislators face possible charges of embezzling fees intended to pay
RSS