Members of the Wild Strawberry Student Movement yesterday slammed the indictment of National Taiwan University sociology professor Lee Ming-tsung (李明璁) for allegedly violating the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) during a sit-in last November.
Movement spokesman Chang Chih-hao (張之豪) said the students regretted the development, but said the indictment was “predictable.”
“We realize after months of peaceful protest that this government did not feel any remorse for what they did,” Chang said during an English interview with the Taipei Times. “They still don’t think they have done anything wrong.”
Chang was referring to the manner in which law enforcement officers dealt with demonstrations against the visit of Chinese envoy Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) in November.
Lee was one of the initiators of the sit-in in front of the Executive Yuan on Nov. 6 along with a group of students who dubbed themselves the Wild Strawberry Student Movement. They called on the government to scrap the requirement in the assembly Act that rally organizers must seek government approval before staging a demonstration. Participants were evicted by the police for not applying to hold the sit-in, but reconvened later at National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall.
The protesters had demanded that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) apologize and that National Police Agency Director-General Wang Cho-chun (王卓鈞) and then-National Security Bureau director-general Tsai Tsao-ming (蔡朝明) step down for what they called the “excessive force” police used against demonstrators.
Chang said the indictment revealed “the authoritarian mindset” of the government as prosecutors still considered Lee “the chief instigator” of the movement while ignoring the fact that college students in the movement were “well-informed” and could take responsibility for their own actions.
“We were not following Lee. We were following our heart,” Chang said, adding that the students regarded Lee as a “comrade” rather than a “leader.”
Chang said the students would take measures to voice concern about the indictment, but did not elaborate.
The indictment, issued on May 15 by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, stated that Lee “is well aware that assembly and parades are prohibited without submitting an application in advance,” but did not do so when he led hundreds of students and civic group members to the sit-in.
Although police officers held up signs several times informing Lee and other demonstrators that their demonstration was in violation of the Act, Lee “refused to heed the warnings given by the police and continued to lead the crowd in protest,” the indictment read.
Prosecutors alleged Lee violated Article 29 of the Act, which states that a leader of demonstrators who refuse to disassemble after being told to do so by authorities may face up to two years in prison.
Lee’s attorney, Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠), yesterday declined to comment on the indictment.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS