Prosecutors yesterday applied to re-examine a child pornography case involving entertainer Mickey Huang (黃子佼), after he was granted a deferred prosecution, sparking a public outcry.
“There is concrete evidence of criminal intent in this case, and it must be dealt with with the most severe punishment,” Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) said. “Our ministry must act swiftly to shut down such child pornography sites.”
Several women last year accused Huang of rape and sexual misconduct. Judicial investigators searched Huang’s office and residence, and seized seven sexually explicit videos involving minors.
Photo: Chiu Yi-chin, Taipei Times
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last week did not charge Huang with contravening the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例), but granted him a deferred prosecution — meaning he would not have a criminal record if he maintained “good behavior” for two years — and ordered him to pay a fine of NT$1.2 million (US$37,477) and write a letter of apology.
It led to a public outcry and prosecutors have applied to the High Prosecutors’ Office to reconsider Huang’s case and examine the reasons he was given a deferred prosecution.
Lee Jinglei (李靚蕾), the former wife of singer Wang Leehom (王力宏), wrote on Instagram yesterday that Taiwan is too lenient regarding crimes involving child pornography and sexual offenses against minors.
“I cannot accept the [deferred prosecution] decision, Taiwan lags far behind US in its punishments for these offenses. An offender in the US could get a sentence of up to 10 years for only possessing a sexual image or video of underage boys and girls, with the average being a six-year, three-month prison term,” she wrote.
“When offenders are found in possession of sex videos of children under the age of 12, or already have a record involving a sexual offense, the punishment in the US can go up to 20 years, with a minimum of 10 years in prison,” Lee said.
Taiwan “should follow other countries in setting up an open database on sex offenders, so that children, teenagers and adults can be warned if there is a sex offender living in their neighborhood,” she said.
“Criminals convicted of sexual assault or engaging in child pornography should be locked up in prisons; they should not be walking around in parks and public places where children are playing,” she added.
Meanwhile, many public figures have lashed out at gaming streamer and YouTuber Chang Chia-hang (張嘉航), nicknamed Godtone (統神), for defending Huang,
Chang was quoted saying: “It is not such a serious matter... Even I would like to have sex with a minor.”
Following the outcry, seven companies yesterday said they had terminated their sponsorship deals with Chang.
The gaming firm Pixel Knights (轟天騎士團) wrote in its announcement that “we are firmly against anyone talking in such a way that endangers society and the online gaming community. The rights of children and women must be fully protected by the law, and underage girls especially need to be protected against exploitation.”
“From now on, we will closely scrutinize which celebrity figures we choose to cooperate with... Let us create a healthy environment for the gaming community,” Pixel Knights said.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
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
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS