The Kaohsiung branch of the High Court yesterday increased prison sentences for four people who worked for a forced labor group in Cambodia after rejecting their claims in a second trial.
The defendants, women surnamed Chen (陳), Lai (賴) and Chou (周) and a man surnamed Lin (林), in the first trial said they had been physically forced to engage in fraud and other criminal activities after taking a job offer in the Southeast Asian country.
Accepting the claims, the Pingtung District Court sentenced the women to 11 months to two years and two months in prison, while Lin received a deferred sentence of five years in prison.
Photo: CNA
The High Court’s Kaohsiung branch determined the women willingly stayed in Cambodia without any coercion, it said.
There is evidence showing Chen, Lai and Chou partying at a pub in celebration of the business with the forced labor organization’s leaders, which disqualified them from sentence reduction, the court said.
There was no evidence that the women were abused, it added.
The male defendant surnamed Lin also had a disqualifying condition in the form of a prior conviction with a sentence of one year and eight months in prison, the court said.
The court sentenced Chen to three years and eight months in prison, Lai to three years and two months in prison, Chou to one year and seven months in prison, and Lin to two years, it said.
The branch court in the verdict said Chen, Lai and Chou were recruited into a snakehead organization known as Wanyuan (萬源), Wanli (萬利) or Wanku Group (萬古), creating job postings to find targets.
The three women told the victims via text messages that the group was hiring typists and that they would start at a salary of NT$40,000 per month in addition to bonuses, with accommodation and meals included, it said.
The man was tasked with transporting the victims after their arrival in Cambodia, taking care of paperwork and forging COVID-19 vaccination records, the branch court said.
The group would confiscate the victims’ passports and phones to make them work against their will, beating or confining those who disobeyed and sometimes sold them to other groups, it said.
A total of 10 people were caught in the scheme and eight of them were ransomed back to Taiwan by family, triggering a police investigation, the court said.
This verdict is not final.
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