Three police officers in Taoyuan are being investigated by prosecutors for alleged brutality against a 17-year-old boy during a recent interrogation, the city’s police precinct said on Thursday.
The case is being handled by the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office, the precinct said in a statement.
Police officers who break the law would be severely punished and their supervisors held accountable, it said, indicating that the police station’s chief has been transferred to a non-supervisory position over the incident.
Photo: Hsieh Wu-hsiung, Taipei Times
Taoyuan City Councilor Chan Chiang-tsun (詹江村) said the victim, identified by his last name, Huang (黃), was passing in front of Wuling police station at about 9pm on Sunday when he was stopped by three officers.
They accused Huang of being involved in a recent kidnapping case and took him into the station, where he was interrogated for about an hour, Chan said.
During the interrogation Huang was struck multiple times and even subjected to an electric shock device by the officers in an attempt to make him confess, the councilor said, indicating that the teenager was released after eight hours of wrongful detention because the officers had no evidence against him.
Chan said that he asked the police station for an account of the incident, but was told there is no recording of the interrogation.
Huang said he was only passing by the area to get to his scooter when the officers detained him for questioning.
They did not give an explanation, Huang said, adding that he was simply told to leave after they returned his cellphone.
Following a medical examination at Saint Paul’s Hospital in Taoyuan, the teenager said he filed a report with the Sanxia police precinct against the three officers for “intimidation, causing harm and public humiliation.”
In its statement, the Taoyuan police precinct said that officers who break the law would be severely punished and their supervisors held accountable.
On Thursday, the Taoyuan precinct apologized to Huang and his family over the incident.
In addition, they said the precinct would not tolerate and does not condone contraventions of the law by its officers.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
RSS