The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld an earlier ruling that army personnel were responsible for the death of Hung Wen-pu (洪文璞), a conscript who committed suicide after being bullied, and said that Hung’s parents should receive NT$2.86 million (US$94,483) in compensation from Army Command Headquarters.
The compensation was increased from the NT$1.97 million ordered in the first ruling at the district court.
However, yesterday’s ruling can be appealed.
In the first trial, the district court found platoon leader Hao Cheng (郝錚), Hung’s immediate superior when he served at Army Command Headquarters in 2008, guilty of physical abuse of a subordinate and sentenced Hao to one year in prison.
Several other army officers, non-commissioned officers and others who were found to have been involved in bullying Hung received demerits or were given cautions.
Hung killed himself by jumping off of a building at a training camp in Nantou County in August 2008.
Hung’s mother went public about her son’s death in 2014, when she railed against Hung’s unit for bullying him and contributing to his suicide, complaining that Army Command Headquarters and Ministry of National Defense officials has colluded in covering up his death.
Hung had earned a master’s degree in physics from National Taiwan University before being called up in March 2008 to begin his mandatory military service when he was 27.
He was assigned to work at the accounting office of the Army Command Headquarters.
His mother said Hung had told her that he was the target of bullying, with his superiors often criticizing him and saying things like: “You have an advanced university degree, but you cannot even perform simple tasks,” “You are an idiot ! How many times do we have to teach you how to do this work?”
“He received vicious verbal abuse so often that he broke down and cried during work at least six times,” she said.
An investigation by prosecutors determined that Hung suffered from depression and emotional problems from the abuse and verbal bullying, which sometimes came in the form of threats against Hung.
The courts ruled that the verbal abuse had directly contributed to Hung being unable to cope with the distress, and led to commit suicide.
In the first ruling, the court heard from testimony that prior to entering the military, Hung was known as a jovial, friendly, open-minded guy.
EVA Airways was ranked the eighth-best airline in the world for this year, the only Taiwanese carrier to make it into the top 25 Airline Excellence Awards this year, aviation reviews Web site AirlineRatings.com said on Wednesday. AirlineRatings.com has a seven-star rating system to evaluate more than 360 airlines around the world every year, EVA Airways said in a statement on Thursday. “We are delighted that efforts by the entire EVA staff have been recognized by Airline Ratings,” EVA Airways president Clay Sun (孫嘉明) said in the release. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company identified and adopted services and procedures that enhance and
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
MORE WARNINGS: If the US company does not clarify and solve issues with its frozen berries, the FDA might extend an import suspension implemented last month, it said The Kaohsiung Department of Health yesterday said it fined Costco NT$4.5 million (US$146,265) over contaminated frozen strawberries, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that although the US company had filed an improvement plan, an import suspension on frozen berries could remain. Three types of frozen berry products imported and sold by Costco have tested positive for the hepatitis A virus since April. The Kaohsiung health department previously fined Costco NT$300,000 for not providing the sales list of a contaminated batch of Kirkland Signature Three Berry Blend imported from Chile, in contravention of the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法). It later
‘NEGLIGENCE’: After reporting the incident, her superior allegedly asked her why she did not scream, which was an inappropriate attempt to ignore the allegations, critics said An accusation of sexual harassment led to the resignation of a top Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) official, while President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has called for a thorough investigation into the incident involving a contractor. Vice President and DPP Chairman William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said he approved the resignation of DPP deputy secretary-general Hsu Chia-tien (許嘉恬), who headed the party’s Women’s Development Department when the alleged incident happened in September last year. “Gender equality is among our party’s core values, that we have strived for and advanced along with Taiwanese society,” Lai said. “The DPP did not handle it appropriately at the time,
RSS