National Taiwan University student Hung Chung-yen (洪崇晏) was arrested and handcuffed by police yesterday after he showed up for a protest in front of Zhongzheng First Precinct in Taipei.
Hung was taken to the Taipei City Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division and in the evening was sent to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for further investigation.
According to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, a warrant for Hung’s arrest was issued on Friday after he failed to answer several summonses for questioning about his involvement in a protest at the Zhongzheng First Precinct building on April 11.
Photo: CNA
Hung was released without bail later last night.
Earlier yesterday, a group of protesters angry at the precinct for seizing a loudspeaker and sound system belonging to the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan at an anti-nuclear energy rally on April 28 demonstrated in front of the police station and asked the bureau to return the items.
Shortly after the demonstration in which Hung also took part ended, at about noon, two officers from the Taipei Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division arrested Hung at the intersection of Guanquian Road and Hankou Street.
The officers also confiscated Hung’s cellphone after he informed his family about his arrest.
Later yesterday, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights issued a statement accusing police of violating human rights when they arrested Hung without identifying themselves as police officers.
The statement said that the many recent demonstrations on the streets of Taipei had been caused by the arrogance and incompetence of the government.
Instead of reflecting on what it has done wrong, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration is continually flouting the rule of law and completely disregards people’s rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, the statement said.
“The police’s unannounced arrest of a student with no criminal record was mafia-like, and is a severe blow to Taiwan’s human rights and rule of law,” it said.
In addition to conveying concern for Hung’s personal safety, the association called on the Taipei City Police Department to remember its responsibility to uphold Hung’s legal rights, including ensuring is not tortured and has a lawyer present during questioning.
If his rights are not upheld, the association said it would rectify the situation using every means at its disposal.
The government should desist from violating human rights and overstepping legal boundaries, the association added, saying that such actions only contributed to conflict, leading society further from rational dialogue and democratic solutions.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
ALLEGED SABOTAGE: The damage inflicted by the vessel did not affect connection, as data were immediately rerouted to other cables, Chunghwa Telecom said Taiwan suspects that a Chinese-owned cargo vessel damaged an undersea cable near its northeastern coast on Friday, in an alleged act of sabotage that highlights the vulnerabilities of Taipei’s offshore communications infrastructure. The ship is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company whose director is Chinese, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. An unidentified Taiwanese official cited in the report described the case as sabotage. The incident followed another Chinese vessel’s suspected involvement in the breakages of data cables in the Baltic Sea in November last year. While fishing trawlers are known to sometimes damage such equipment, nation states have also
RSS