The Taiwan High Court branch in Taipei acquitted Turkish man Yamur Ersagun, 29, of sexual assault charges yesterday, overturning a lower court ruling of last year that found him guilty and sentenced him to 22 months in prison.
Ersagun, using Wang Kai-chieh (王凱傑) as a Chinese-language name, was indicted after an incident in April 2013 involving a female college student at his residence.
The student said he tried to rape her, but she fought off the assault.
Photo: Hsiang Cheng-cheng, Taipei Times
Attending Tamkang University and living in Taipei at the time, Ersagun was accused of luring the student to his home by inviting her to watch him feed his pet rabbit.
The Taipei District Court in April last year found him guilty of attempted forced sexual intercourse.
Ersagun denied the allegation and appealed to the High Court.
The High Court said yesterday’s judgement was based on inconsistencies in the accuser’s testimony and the defendant passing a lie detector test during the retrial.
Ersagun also faced indictments on rape charges involving a 16-year-old girl on two separate occasions in May 2013.
The High Court also acquitted him on those charges, again citing inconsistencies in the testimony of the accuser.
Yesterday’s acquittal can still be appealed.
Ersagun came to Taiwan in 2007. In addition to enrolling at Tamkang University, he made appearances on domestic television dating shows.
During the investigation in the April 2013 attempted rape case, prosecutors in examining his computer found 29 videos of him having sex with various Taiwanese women.
During the initial trial, local media outlets quoted Ersagun as saying each woman loved him because he was “handsome.”
He said the videos depicted consensual sex.
Regarding the April 2013 case, Ersagun said after the student pushed him away, he “acted like a gentleman” and stopped any further advances.
However, the woman went on to make a false accusation against him, he added.
However, prosecutors found that Ersagun’s saliva was found on the accuser’s chest and that he forcibly removed the female’s jeans and underwear as she tried to resist his actions.
She testified that Ersagun began the alleged sexual assault by petting and kissing her at his residence, then groped her breasts.
The High Court said this indicated that the female student felt “he was just being playful” and would lead Ersagun into “not knowing where her bottom line was and when to stop.”
It said that when Ersagun wanted to go further, “he stopped the action when she began to cry,” and thus “there was no clear evidence that he had the intention of forcing sex on her,” the judgement said.
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