The Legislative Yuan on Tuesday approved amendments that would impose heavier punishments on trafficking people abroad to engage in criminal activity and prohibit gangsters or people linked to organized crime from running in elections, the Ministry of Justice said.
The amendments to the Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪防制條例) also grant authorities the right to terminate a public event or social gathering organized by gangsters and to order participants to disperse.
The changes would strengthen the justice system, equipping it with better weapons to combat organized crime activities, the ministry said in a statement.
“It is known that gangsters use their organized structure to prey on the public, committing criminal offenses that cause great harm to society and endanger public safety,” the ministry’s statement said.
They have increasingly colluded with other criminal groups to entice Taiwanese to work abroad with the promise of high pay, with the victims finding themselves being forced to engage in telecom fraud, being sexually exploited and subject to other forms of abuses, it said.
These crimes have severely tarnished our nation’s image in the international community, the ministry added.
The amendment raises the punishment for trafficking people abroad to get involved in criminal activity to up to seven years in prison and a fine of up to NT$20 million (US$650,237).
Another amendment would ban a person convicted of a crime from running in elections, ministry officials said, adding that the objective is to stop gangsters from getting involved in politics or serving in public office.
Criminal organizations holding public events or social gatherings to promote criminal activities either explicitly or implicitly and who refuse to disperse after three warnings from authorities would face up to three years in prison and a fine of up to NT$3 million, the statement said.
The amendment follows public outrage over the Bamboo Union’s Ming Ren Chapter holding a high-profile banquet at a upscale hotel in Taipei in March, during which gang bosses and members flaunted their wealth, arriving in luxury cars and hiring 170 hostesses for the event.
Article 2 of the Organized Crime Prevention Act refers to a criminal organization as a “structured, permanent or profit-seeking organization formed by more than three persons involved in threats, violence, fraud, intimidation, or offenses that carry a maximum principal punishment of more than five years’ imprisonment.”
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