The Taipei District Court yesterday sentenced six activists linked to the 2014 Sunflower movement to 30 days in jail for spray-painting graffiti on a side of the National Police Agency’s (NPA) headquarters in Taipei in 2018, but their sentences can be commuted to fines.
The court convicted the six of “insulting and defaming public agencies” and “destruction, abandonment and damage of property,” including Wu Jun-yen (吳濬彥), deputy head of the Democratic Progressive Party’s Yilan County chapter.
Wu told reporters that he and his codefendants would appeal their convictions.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“The charge of insulting and defaming public agencies violates the Constitution’s guarantee on freedom of expression,” he said.
Prosecutors said that Wu, Kao Juo-yu (高若有), two youth activists surnamed Chen (陳) and Chuang (莊), and two other males surnamed Chang (張) on March 24, 2018, had used red paint to write “323 Four-Year Anniversary” (323四週年) on one wall, as well as throwing white masks inside.
Wu said the slogan marked the anniversary of the March 23, 2014, occupation of Executive Yuan compound, which is next to the NPA’s headquarters, by protesters whose occupation was ended the next day by riot-gear-clad police wielding batons against the demonstrators.
Police officers apprehended Kao outside the NPA’s building, and he admitted he was part of a group of six protesting the alleged cover-up by the agency and the judiciary of the violence used by police to end the occupation of the Executive Yuan.
“We took action in 2018, because it had been four years, but we had still received no response to requests that several police officers who viciously beat protesters on March 23 and 24, as documented by photographs and videos, be prosecuted,” Wu said.
“The government and NPA officials are still covering up the whole thing, and no truth has come from our demand for investigation and for prosecution,” he said.
“We feel this ruling is very unreasonable, so we will appeal. Legal experts have said that the ‘insulting and defaming public agencies’ charge is unconstitutional as it violates citizens’ rights to freedom of expression. It seems this offense can be used against any person who disagrees with government policies and choose to express their dissenting views,” he added.
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