The crew cut given to former National Security Council secretary-general Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) while in detention was not an act of discrimination, nor was it done with the intention to humiliate him, Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) told legislators yesterday.
The detention center's standard operating procedures call for detainees' hairstyles to be “simple and comfortable,” Wang told a meeting of the legislature's Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.
The center does not provide hair dryers for security reasons and since long hair does not dry quickly in cold weather, the detention center was afraid that Chiou might catch a cold, so his hair was cut to about 3cm in length with Chiou's consent, she said.
Chiou's hair would not be cut without his consent, Wang said.
Everyone working at the detention center has a heavy workload and is under considerable stress, she said.
The public should sympathize with the staff and try to understand the measures they must take, Wang said, adding that if anyone thought the Ministry of Justice had done wrong, they should let the ministry know, so that officials could review the matter.
Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has not had his hair cut because it was short to begin with and it was not a matter of special treatment, Wang said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
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