Sat, Aug 17, 2002 page2

• Rape victim blasts prosecutors

  SEXUAL BATTERY A Canadian woman who says she was raped by a murder suspect is frustrated that authorities have taken little action to prosecute her alleged attacker

  • By David Frazier and Jimmy Chuang / STAFF REPORTERS
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  For nearly 10 months Taipei prosecutors have ignored a rape case that could have led to the indictment of one of the alleged murderers of Wu Hsiao-hui (吳曉蕙), a preliminary school teacher killed in 1994.

  Huang Chi-feng (黃啟峰), one of two men who reportedly confessed to killing Wu, allegedly raped a Canadian woman on Oct. 21. Though the incident was reported to police and Huang was identified by the woman, Huang has yet to be arrested or detained for her assault.

  "I wanted to press charges, but nobody would listen," said the woman, whose identity will not be disclosed in order to protect her privacy.

  The woman is critical of the way police handled her case and frustrated that prosecutors never bothered to prosecute Huang.

  Nearly 10 months after she was raped, she has still not been contacted by a prosecutor.

  Recently, Wu's murder has prompted calls for a national finger-printing regime and tougher penalties for juvenile offenders -- both suspects in the 1994 murder were juveniles at the time -- but the woman told the Taipei Times that the problem is not the laws, but apathy toward enforcement.

  "If they're talking now about protecting women under the law, they have to look at who's doing the protecting. It's supposed to be the police, but they didn't protect me," she said.

  Lin Shu-chia (林順家), the deputy director of the Taipei City Police Headquarters' Chungcheng First Precinct (中正一分局), told the Taipei Times that Huang was not arrested right after the Oct. 21 incident because he was not caught in a criminal act.

  "By law, police officers don't have the right to pull out their handcuffs to arrest somebody immediately if this person doesn't break the law in front of police officers," Lin explained.

  But according to Lin, after the precinct accepted the case and began the paperwork, officers tried to wrap up the process as soon as possible with the woman identifying Huang as the suspect. They then transferred the case to Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office within a week.

  "When she reported to us, there was no witness for this case. We handled it according to the statement of the victim. It's a simple rape case, I must say," he added.

  Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office Prosecutor-General Wu Chen-huan (吳陳鐶) confirmed that the Canadian woman's case is still under investigation, though he could not reveal any details due to its status as an open case.

  Though the Canadian woman's case has not progressed in the courts, DNA samples and fingerprints resulting from the case were recently used to tie Huang to Wu Hsiao-hui's murder eight years ago.

  The Canadian woman's case is also the only case that could tie Huang to a criminal act as an adult.

  Wu said that since Huang was 22 at the time of the Oct. 21 incident, he would face full criminal responsibility if indicted.

  "For the former Hsinu Elementary School teacher Wu Hsiao-hui's murder, he was only 15 when he [allegedly] committed the crime, so he was under the protection of the Law Governing the Disposition of Juvenile Cases (少年事件處理法). However, for this case, he should be expecting to face punishment as an adult if convicted," Wu Chen-huan explained.

  Huang could receive a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison for Wu Hsiao-hui's murder, rather than life imprisonment or the death penalty were he an adult.

  He could receive an additional seven years if convicted of raping the Canadian woman.
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