The Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday said it had launched an investigation into sexual assault allegations made on social media against Sakuliu Pavavaljung, a Paiwan artist who received a National Award for Art in 2017.
The announcement came a day after the National Culture and Arts Foundation and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum canceled Pavavaljung’s sponsorships for next year’s Venice Bienniale in Italy and Documenta Fifteen in Kassel, Germany.
On Thursday last week, artist Kuo Yu-ping (郭俞平) wrote on Facebook that a Paiwan cultural icon was being shielded by community leaders from the consequences of raping a 19-year-old protege.
Photo: CNA
Kuo used a pseudonym for the alleged culprit.
The cultural icon lured the young woman to a remote mountain and took away her digital devices before physically overpowering her, Kuo said.
Three days later, a person with the Facebook account name Yueh Lien Yu (余悅廉) wrote that Pavavaljung attempted to assault her 15 years ago on a secluded beach near Taitung County’s Dulan Township (都蘭) and included the MeToo hashtag.
Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office lead prosecutor Chen Yi-li (陳怡利) said that the allegations against Pavavaljung are being investigated as the 20-year statute of limitation on crimes against sexual autonomy has not yet expired.
A Pingtung County Ligan Police Precinct spokesman said that police are tracking down the alleged victim referred to in Kuo’s post.
No additional information would be provided due to privacy concerns, the spokesman said.
Yu had not lodged a criminal complaint over the alleged rape, but would be contacted as part of the inquiry, they said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by