The Taipei District Court ruled against former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and presidential candidate, in a defamation case against US author Ethan Gutmann, with a decision yesterday to turn down Ko’s request for prosecution, in the controversy over Ko’s past visits to China for teaching medical transplant techniques that have allegedly played a role in forced organ harvesting.
It is the third time Ko lost a legal proceeding against Gutmann, who wrote the book The Slaughter in 2014 as an expose of the “mass killings, organ harvesting and China’s secret solution to its dissident problem,” for which Ko denied having a role, and had dissociated himself when the subject came up.
In the first round, Taipei prosecutors in August 2020 decided to drop the charges and not proceed on the defamation case brought by Ko, who sued Gutmann for calling him a liar during a news conference in 2018. When he was asked: “Do you think that Dr Ko is a liar?” Gutmann nodded and said: “Yes.”
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Ko appealed that decision, requesting prosecution on defamation, which the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office turned down again, then Ko filed at the Taipei District Court for a “private prosecution,” a criminal proceeding initiated by an individual or a private organization, instead of a public prosecutor.
After completing its probe, the Taipei District Court yesterday said in a statement that public prosecutors had examined the available evidence and presented the investigation results, which found no contravention to the rules of experience and logic, therefore ruled to reject the request, while confirming it is the final decision on the case, with no further appeal permitted.
In the court’s filing, the judges said that prosecutors had carefully reviewed and examined on the disputed points presented by Ko, and found insufficient evidence to prosecute Gutmann on the defamation case.
The judges also cited an earlier correspondence between Ko and Gutmann in 2013, before publication of The Slaughter, regarding whether any correction is needed on Ko’s statements during interviews, which Ko responded in e-mail: “The story seems OK.”
Regarding the “liar” comment, the judges said that it was during a news conference in Taipei in October 2018, and Gutmann was passively giving a response to a question from the audience without any intention to insult Ko.
In the initial case filed by Ko for defamation, Taiwanese political pundit Brian Wu (吳祥輝) was also accused, as Wu arranged Gutmann’s 2018 visit to publicize The Slaughter, which alleged that Ko had helped Chinese medical authorities on techniques and equipment for harvesting organs from Falun Gong members, Uighurs, political dissidents and inmates.
In his book, Gutmann alleged that “Ko was an intermediary” for Taiwanese seeking to receive organ transplants in China, and that Ko, having taught extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) techniques to doctors in China, created a “perverse incentive” for Chinese doctors to harvest live organs.
After the book’s publication, then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) and other party figures presented accounts and evidence to indicate that prior to 2014, Ko had visited China 18 times, with 16 trips from 2003 to 2008 and two more in 2013, and said that he was mostly invited to present seminars and allegedly teaching on use of ECMO for harvesting organs.
KMT members also alleged that Ko had profited from representing medical firms in China for sales of ECMO devices.
In a follow-up interview in 2020 regarding the issue, Gutmann said: “The organ harvesting tragedy was created by Beijing, but it has been assisted by a handful of foreign doctors who thought they could ride the Chinese dragon and come back home as if everything was normal. As I have made clear in my previous statements in Taipei and Westminster, some Taiwanese doctors were not immune to these temptations.”
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
UNKNOWN TRAJECTORY: The storm could move in four possible directions, with the fourth option considered the most threatening to Taiwan, meteorologist Lin De-en said A soon-to-be-formed tropical storm east of the Philippines could begin affecting Taiwan on Wednesday next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The storm, to be named Fung-wong (鳳凰), is forecast to approach Taiwan on Tuesday next week and could begin affecting the weather in Taiwan on Wednesday, CWA forecaster Huang En-hung (黃恩鴻) said, adding that its impact might be amplified by the combined effect with the northeast monsoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the system’s center was 2,800km southeast of Oluanbi (鵝鑾鼻). It was moving northwest at 18kph. Meteorologist Lin De-en (林得恩) on Facebook yesterday wrote that the would-be storm is surrounded by
RSS