The High Court yesterday revoked guilty verdicts against seven people involved in the occupation of the Executive Yuan during the 2014 Sunflower movement, as the charges against them have been dropped.
In April last year, the High Court sentenced the defendants to prison terms ranging from two to four months for inciting the occupation.
After an appeal, the Supreme Court in January remanded the cases to the High Court, saying that the defendants were exercising their “right of resistance,” or civil disobedience, as part of their freedom of expression.
The High Court yesterday said the role of the defendants in the occupation of the Executive Yuan complex had been redefined as assisting rather than inciting protesters, adding that the Executive Yuan had dropped its charges against the defendants and the cases have been closed.
The Sunflower movement was triggered by the then-ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) moving to fast-track a bill on a cross-strait services trade agreement with China.
During the protests from March 18 to April 10, hundreds of people broke into the Legislative Yuan, while thousands demonstrated outside the complex.
One group, which included the seven defendants, attempted to occupy the nearby Executive Yuan on March 23, but was forcibly removed by police wielding batons and firing water cannons during the early hours of March 24.
The defendants accused of inciting the Executive Yuan occupation were first tried in 2017 in the Taipei District Court, which acquitted them. Prosecutors appealed to the High Court, which last year overturned the lower court’s verdicts and found them guilty.
The High Court’s decision yesterday cannot be appealed.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS