The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that it has lodged a formal complaint with the police against six Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and city councilors, saying that they injured a ministry official at a protest last week.
Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news conference in Taipei that the complaint was against KMT legislators William Tseng (曾銘宗), Lin Te-fu (林德福) and Arthur Chen (陳宜民); KMT Taipei city councilors William Hsu (徐弘庭) and Chang Shi-gang (張斯綱); and KMT New Taipei City Councilor Lin Chin-chieh (林金結).
At their protest in front of the ministry’s compound on Friday last week, some of the KMT politicians twisted the arm of a ministry official, who they suspected of being a prying National Security Bureau official, even though he had told them that he works at the ministry’s Public Diplomacy Coordination Council, Ou said.
Due to the physical and mental harm inflicted on the young official, the ministry decided to ask the Taipei City Police Department’s Zhongzheng First Precinct to investigate the incident, she said.
The ministry on Monday submitted a formal request to the precinct based on articles 135 and 304 of the Criminal Code, Ou said, adding that the move was made after careful consideration and collection of evidence.
The ministry communicated its decision to the official, who has been told to rest, she said.
The ministry is a government department that represents the nation abroad, not a place to campaign for elections, Ou said, reaffirming its principle of maintaining administrative neutrality.
The KMT politicians reportedly aimed to demand a response from Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) over the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office prosecuting Yang Hui-ju (楊蕙如) — a member of the Democratic Progressive Party — for allegedly spreading misinformation that has been linked to the suicide last year of Su Chii-cherng (蘇啟誠), the then-director-general of the Osaka branch of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Japan.
Asked why the ministry did not receive the protesters as per formal procedure, Ou said that they did not prepare a petition letter and apparently intended to put on a show for their election campaigns.
The ministry had granted them entry for another protest on Tuesday last week, when they paraded a mock coffin and prevented the use of an elevator at the compound, she said.
Su was on Sept. 14 last year found hanged at his residence in Osaka, reportedly due to public pressure, which was later found to have been caused by misinformation, on the office because of a delay in extending assistance to Taiwanese travelers stranded at Kansai International Airport during a typhoon.
Asked if there were any developments in Su’s case, Ou said that the ministry denounced any form of misinformation and has improved the emergency response procedures at its overseas offices.
Su was not asked to leave his post before his death, as some media have reported, while judicial agencies are probing the factors leading to his suicide, Ou said, calling on politicians not to use his death for political gain.
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