The Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday said it had launched an investigation into sexual assault allegations made on social media against Sakuliu Pavavaljung, a Paiwan artist who received a National Award for Art in 2017.
The announcement came a day after the National Culture and Arts Foundation and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum canceled Pavavaljung’s sponsorships for next year’s Venice Bienniale in Italy and Documenta Fifteen in Kassel, Germany.
On Thursday last week, artist Kuo Yu-ping (郭俞平) wrote on Facebook that a Paiwan cultural icon was being shielded by community leaders from the consequences of raping a 19-year-old protege.
Photo: CNA
Kuo used a pseudonym for the alleged culprit.
The cultural icon lured the young woman to a remote mountain and took away her digital devices before physically overpowering her, Kuo said.
Three days later, a person with the Facebook account name Yueh Lien Yu (余悅廉) wrote that Pavavaljung attempted to assault her 15 years ago on a secluded beach near Taitung County’s Dulan Township (都蘭) and included the MeToo hashtag.
Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office lead prosecutor Chen Yi-li (陳怡利) said that the allegations against Pavavaljung are being investigated as the 20-year statute of limitation on crimes against sexual autonomy has not yet expired.
A Pingtung County Ligan Police Precinct spokesman said that police are tracking down the alleged victim referred to in Kuo’s post.
No additional information would be provided due to privacy concerns, the spokesman said.
Yu had not lodged a criminal complaint over the alleged rape, but would be contacted as part of the inquiry, they said.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
A woman who allegedly spiked the food and drinks of an Australian man with rat poison, leaving him in intensive care, has been charged with attempted murder, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The woman, identified by her surname Yang (楊), is accused of repeatedly poisoning Alex Shorey over the course of several months last year to prevent the Australian man from leaving Taiwan, prosecutors said in a statement. Shorey was evacuated back to Australia on May 3 last year after being admitted to intensive care in Taiwan. According to prosecutors, Yang put bromadiolone, a rodenticide that prevents blood from
China is likely to focus on its economy over the next four years and not set a timetable for attempting to annex Taiwan, a researcher at Beijing’s Tsinghua University wrote in an article published in Foreign Affairs magazine on Friday. In the article titled “Why China isn’t scared of Trump: US-Chinese tensions may rise, but his isolationism will help Beijing,” Chinese international studies researcher Yan Xuetong (閻學通) wrote that the US and China are unlikely to go to war over Taiwan in the next four years under US president-elect Donald Trump. While economic and military tensions between the US and China would
RSS