Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷) and 12 others were yesterday charged for their roles in a 2018 demonstration against military pension cuts that turned violent, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said.
In the indictment, prosecutors say that Wu, then deputy head of a veterans’ group, and Wang Po-yun (王寶芸) of the Blue Sky Action Alliance encouraged violence when they spoke at a rally in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on April 25, 2018.
Their speeches were found to have incited protesters to clash with police as people sought to break into the Legislative Yuan, they said.
Photo: CNA
The demonstration and violent clashes led to 32 police officers and 11 journalists being injured, an Executive Yuan statement said at the time.
Wu’s group, the “800 warriors,” had since February 2017 organized a series of protests over pension cuts, including camping outside the Legislative Yuan.
The 11 others were charged with obstructing officers in the execution of their duties and causing injuries, the prosecutors said.
In a statement, Wu called the indictment a distraction created by the Democratic Progressive Party as it pushes through the approval of former Presidential Office secretary-general Chen Chu (陳菊) as Control Yuan president.
Wu said that Chen was unfit for the post as her administration was censured and impeached by the Control Yuan several times during her time as Kaohsiung mayor.
He defended himself against the charges, saying that he always called for demonstrators to be peaceful and reasonable.
However, it was difficult to control the crowds when the protests involved various groups, he added.
It is regrettable that the prosecutors failed to act impartially, but he would undergo the judicial process in accordance with the law while continuing to protest against the current administration’s abuse of power, Wu said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
RSS