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.
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