The “White Rose” movement yesterday accused the government of arresting and jailing people only after public protests force it to do so, comments that came in the wake of the arrest of a taxi driver suspected of sexually assaulting a Japanese exchange student last week.
Hsieh Tung-hsien (謝東憲) was charged with rape and fled his apartment after being released on bail last week. Police arrested him near a cemetery in Tucheng District (土城), New Taipei City (新北市), at 11am yesterday, where he was allegedly waiting for a friend he had contacted to lend him money for his escape.
Hsieh was ordered detained at 2pm by the Banciao District Court.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Investigators said the exchange student was allegedly raped on Monday last week by Hsieh, who had offered her a ride after she got lost looking for her boyfriend’s apartment in a remote area of Tucheng District.
Police arrested him the next day and he admitted to having sex with the woman, but denied the rape charge, saying it was a one-night stand.
Despite his arrest on charges of sexual assault, Banciao District Court judge Lu Chun-chieh (盧軍傑) on Wednesday ordered Hsieh released on NT$50,000 bail, sparking outrage among netizens, who started a “Petition for the dismissal of the judge [who approved the bail]” on Facebook, which garnered more than 180,000 online fans.
While the Banciao District Prosecutors’ Office successfully appealed his release with the Taiwan High Court on Friday, Hsieh had by that time jumped bail and police were unable to locate him until yesterday.
Eva, the spokeswoman for the White Rose movement, an organization created in August last year after several cases of child molestation resulted in judgements that were largely seen as slaps on the wrist, said that as many as 74 people across Taiwan were high-risk repeat sexual offenders, with 200 more who were considered at medium-to-high risk of committing rape.
However, the government refuses to release information about those potential threats to society, which puts women at unnecessary risk, Eva said, adding that the White Rose movement would take to the streets at the end of this month.
The rally will take place on July 31 in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, she said.
The date coincides with the opening of the gates of the dead, the beginning of “Ghost Month” according to the lunar calendar, Eva said.
Some netizens said the “good brothers and sisters [ghosts]” would also take to the streets in protest and eliminate the “bad ghosts” that might again commit rape.
“How long must we wait before the government takes this problem seriously?” Eva asked, adding that although the public always made clear their anger at the erroneous judgements of so-called “dinosaur judges,” a similar event would likely happen again somewhere down the line.
WITH TRANSLATION BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS