The campaign office for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), yesterday filed a complaint at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office, accusing Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, and DPP New Taipei City Councilor Tai Wei-shan (戴瑋姍) of aggravated libel.
Remarks by Lai and Tai concerning an investigation into the possible use of sedatives at preschools in New Taipei City have damaged Hou’s reputation, said Lu Chia-kai (呂家愷), the spokesperson for Hou’s campaign office.
Parents had accused a preschool in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) of giving their children sedatives, with samples from eight children showing traces of barbiturates, but at levels that were considered negative.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The prosecutors’ office on Thursday said hair follicle tests on 36 students at the preschool were negative for barbiturates and benzodiazepines.
The campaign office on Friday urged Lai and Tai to apologize for their remarks about the incident, saying that if they did not, it would sue them for aggravated libel.
Hsieh Cheng-ta (謝政達), deputy director of the campaign office, Lu and lawyer Chien Jung-tsung (簡榮宗) yesterday rang the bell outside the prosecutors’ office before filing the complaint.
On June 18, Lai told reporters that the preschool children had been fed a “rainbow potion” and had withdrawal symptoms, Lu said, adding that the media reports that cited his remark resulted in damage to Hou’s reputation.
On June 14, Tai wrote on Facebook that Hou was suspected of trying to cover the incident up, and that the children tested positive for barbiturate residue, which was evidence of them having been given the drug, he said.
However, information released by the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office and the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office showed that Tai’s remarks were false, Lu said.
Lai is the vice president and the DPP’s presidential candidate, and despite having a background as a doctor, made a very misleading remark, while Tai is a public figure, whose misleading remark was liked and shared by more than 4,000 people, resulting in damage to Hou’s image and reputation, Lu said.
They were unwilling to apologize, so the office had to take legal action, he added.
Tai yesterday said that “the Banciao preschool are my voters, so as they had reported the incident to me, I had to seek the truth for them.”
“I am a New Taipei City councilor, and supervising the government and speaking up for the people are my duties,” she said. “A city councilor monitoring the mayor is common sense in a democracy, but Hou was ... repeatedly filing lawsuits against me in an effort to make me shut up, which is a method that I and society cannot accept.”
“I will continue to seek the truth,” she said.
Additional reporting by Chueh Ching-lun
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