A group of seven activists yesterday said they would take legal action against police and Novotel Hotel staff they say were involved in a raid of the activists’ hotel room on June 26 at the hotel chain’s Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport venue.
The group asserts that police broke into their room illegally and restricted their movement for more than 10 hours in a bid to prevent them from protesting a meeting between China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) and his Taiwanese counterpart, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦).
Netizens have dubbed the action “room service,” referring to video footage provided by the activists in which an unidentified voice purportedly belonging to a police officer is heard shouting the phrase before police entered the room.
Human rights lawyer Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠) heads the team of volunteer lawyers that have taken up the case.
Kao said the group is demanding compensation from the state and that it would press charges against the police for what it says are offenses against personal liberties and abuse of power.
Kao said the activists would also take legal action against Novotel staff for failing to protect their clients’ privacy, thereby breaching their contract. Three hotel employees were present at the incident, allegedly including hotel general manager Eric Rimbeuf.
Lai Chung-Chiang (賴中強), one of the activists involved and a lawyer himself, demanded an official apology from Novotel.
“We would hate to see our government and private enterprises sacrifice Taiwan’s human rights and values to pander to China,” he said.
Greg Yo (尤伯祥), one of the volunteer lawyers, said incidences of police brutality have risen since the 2008 visit of China’s former Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).
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