The public should respect the system when they receive a court subpoena, as failure to respond could lead to fines, Nantou District Prosecutors’ Office Chief Prosecutor Lee Chun-yi (李俊毅) told reporters on Monday.
The Nantou County District Court recently fined a man surnamed Chen (陳) NT$10,000 after he was subpoenaed as a witness.
Chen said that he could not comply due to work commitments and asked that the court date be changed, Lee said.
Despite the court informing Chen that such a reason was not valid, he nonetheless did not attend, Lee said.
The office has a record of the telephone call it made to Chen regarding his application to change the court date, as well as the date the subpoena was delivered and that it was received, Lee said.
Anyone summoned by a court to take the witness stand might face a similar situation over work schedules, but that is not an appropriate reason not to attend, he said.
The court said that the subpoena issued by the prosecutors’ office was reasonable and Chen’s attendance was critical to the case being tried.
It issued Chen a NT$10,000 fine for failure to heed a subpoena.
Chen can appeal the ruling, the court said.
Such incidents are not common, Lee said, adding that not all such instances result in a fine.
The previous time the Nantou District Court faced the situation was in January 2019, he said.
Article 178 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) states: “A legally subpoenaed witness who fails to appear without good reason may be imposed a pecuniary penalty of not more than NT$30,000. In addition, he may be arrested with a warrant; if he fails to appear when being subpoenaed again, the same rule may be applied.”
Article 303 of the Code of Civil Procedure (民事訴訟法) states: “Where a witness who has been legally summoned fails to appear without giving a justifiable reason, the court may by a ruling impose a fine not exceeding NT$30,000.”
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