The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it would not prosecute student activists who were involved in a heated protest outside the Presidential Office Building in 2013 during which 27 police officers were injured.
On Oct. 10, 2013, Double Ten National Day, student protesters Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆), Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) and Dennis Wei (魏揚) protested against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), whom they claimed had bugged Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) office as part of a power struggle.
The protesters gathered at a site across from the Presidential Office Building and tried to interrupt the National Day celebration that took place across the street, prosecutors said. The move was prevented by police officers and a violent conflict ensued, as some officers tried to forcibly stop a protester’s car that was heading toward the Presidential Office Building, they added.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
In the aftermath, 27 officers were injured, who later presented certified injury reports that showed their injuries were caused during the fracas with the crowd, the prosecutors’ office said.
The police filed obstructing official business charges against Lin, Chen and Wei, as well as Wang Yueh-shu (王曰舒) — the driver of the car who police said intentionally hit officers — the office said.
However, the prosecutors’ office said that video supplied by the police did not support their allegation that Lin and the others attacked the officers, adding that Wang was driving slowly and did not demonstrate any intent to run into police officers.
The video also showed that Lin had twice negotiated with officers and calmed the crowd, so prosecutors decided that there was insufficient evidence to indict Lin and the others, the office said.
Meanwhile, Lin said on Monday that he would begin his military service tomorrow and would not be discharged until January next year.
Lin said that he had been encouraged to make use of his political leverage for several legislative reforms expected this year. However, he said it would be hard for him to contribute until he had finished his military service, so it would be better for him to meet his obligations as soon as possible.
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
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
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
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