The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by an Indonesian migrant worker found guilty of abusing and causing the death of an infant, upholding the 12-year jail sentence handed down by a lower court.
The woman, identified by court documents as Fatimah, was found to have abused the one-year-old boy in February last year.
The infant was placed in Fatimah’s care by the child’s mother, who is reportedly her friend and also from Indonesia.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
While in Fatimah’s care, the infant was struck repeatedly by hand and with a plastic bat, court documents said.
There were also indications that the child had been violently shaken, which together with his other injuries resulted in multiple hemorrhages and bone fractures prior to death, the documents said.
When the infant fell into a coma on Feb. 7 last year, Fatimah did not take the child to seek medical attention until that evening after her boyfriend returned home and found something was wrong with the infant, the documents said.
The boy displayed no vital signs when examined at a hospital.
During questioning following the death of the child on Feb. 23, last year, Fatimah said the boy’s injuries came from falling in the bathroom and traditional Indonesian acupressure therapy which she applied after the fall, the documents said.
In the first trial, the Taichung District Court found Fatimah guilty.
The district court said that Fatimah displayed a poor attitude throughout the case, and her failure to seek reconciliation or suggest payment of compensation to the child’s family was also taken into consideration when deciding her sentence.
She was handed a 12-and-a-half-year jail sentence to be followed by deportation.
After an appeal, the High Court branch in Taichung reduced Fatimah’s jail sentence to 12 years after taking into consideration the fact she pleaded guilty during the trial and had no other criminal record in Taiwan.
Fatimah appealed a second time following the High Court decision, which was rejected by the Supreme Court on Thursday and cannot be appealed.
She would be deported after serving her sentence.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
A man in Tainan has been cleared on charges of public insult after giving the middle finger during a road rage incident, as judges deemed the gesture was made “briefly to express negative feelings.” In last week’s ruling at the High Court’s Tainan branch, judges acquitted a driver, surnamed Cheng (程), for an incident along Tainan’s Nanmen Road in September 2023, when Cheng had spotted a place to park his car in an adjacent lane. Cheng slowed down his vehicle to go into reverse, to back into the parking spot, but the car behind followed too closely, as its driver thought Cheng
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
President William Lai (賴清德) should protect Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), and stop supporting domestic strife and discord, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrote on Facebook yesterday. US President Donald Trump and TSMC on Monday jointly announced that the company would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next few years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US. The TSMC plans have promoted concern in Taiwan that it would effectively lead to the chipmaking giant becoming Americanized. The Lai administration lacks tangible policies to address concerns that Taiwan might follow in Ukraine’s footsteps, Ma wrote. Instead, it seems to think it could
RSS