March 24 Executive Yuan Occupation

The March 24 Executive Yuan incident stemmed from the ongoing occupation of the Legislative Yuan, which had entered its fifth day following the March 18 movement. On March 23, President Ma Ying-jeou held his first press conference to issue a public statement. Rather than responding positively to the protesters' demands, he reiterated the importance of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement and emphasized that the students were illegally occupying the Legislative Yuan.

Disappointed and outraged by the President's failure to address the movement's demands, calls to occupy the Executive Yuan began circulating online on the evening of March 23. Although removed shortly thereafter, crowds began flooding into the Executive Yuan. By around 8:00 PM, protesters had occupied the front plaza and building, marking the beginning of the March 23 Executive Yuan occupation incident.

Upon learning that citizens had occupied the Executive Yuan, then-Premier Chiang Yi-huah instructed the police to clear the Executive Yuan before the start of morning business hours. To clear the premises, police began forcibly evicting the sit-in protesters in the early hours of March 24. A total of 132 protesters who entered the Executive Yuan to stage a sit-in were subsequently indicted by prosecutors. On May 20, 2016, the Executive Yuan withdrew the complaints for intrusion upon a habitation and property damage; however, 21 individuals remain unclosed cases as they were prosecuted under public prosecution charges such as instigation.

Case Overview

Regarding the citizens who entered the Executive Yuan for a sit-in protest, prosecutors indicted 93 people on February 10, 2015, and an additional 39 people on May 5, 2015, bringing the total number of indicted individuals to 132. Among them, 26 also held the status of private prosecutors (i.e., parties who were injured during the forced eviction in the early hours of March 24 and subsequently filed private prosecutions against the police and government agencies). As of 2015, a total of 110 lawyers in the pro bono lawyer platform were assisting with this case. Preliminary proceedings for the case commenced on February 6, 2015, and trial proceedings began successively on December 9, 2015.

The prosecuted charges and number of defendants are detailed in the table below:

Prosecuted Charge	Statutory Penalty	Number of People
Article 306 Intrusion into a Building	Under 1 year	125 people
Article 135 Offenses Against Public Functionaries	Under 3 years	9 people
Article 153 Instigating Others to Commit Offenses	Under 2 years	8 people
Article 138 Destruction of Public Goods	Under 5 years	2 people
Article 354 Property Damage	Under 2 years	1 person

On May 20, 2016, the Executive Yuan withdrew the complaints for "intrusion upon a habitation" and "property damage".
On April 10, 2017, the court delivered its first-instance verdict, acquitting defendants on charges of "instigating others to commit offenses" and "aggravated larceny," while finding them guilty on charges of "offenses against public functionaries" and "destruction of articles under the official custody of public functionaries."

First-Instance Verdict

Name	Charge	Verdict
Wei O	Instigating Others to Commit Offenses	Acquitted
Ch'en O-hao	Instigating Others to Commit Offenses	Acquitted
Hsu O	Instigating Others to Commit Offenses	Acquitted
Lin O-hsing	Instigating Others to Commit Offenses	Acquitted
Chiang O-lun	Instigating Others to Commit Offenses	Acquitted
Liu O-wen	Instigating Others to Commit Offenses	Acquitted
Hsu O-chih	Instigating Others to Commit Offenses	Acquitted
	Destruction of Articles Under Official Custody	Guilty, sentenced to 4 months in prison
K'o O-yu	Instigating Others to Commit Offenses	Acquitted
Lin O-yu	Offenses Against Public Functionaries	Guilty, sentenced to 4 months in prison
Wu O-tao	Offenses Against Public Functionaries	Guilty, sentenced to 3 months in prison
Liu O-ming	Offenses Against Public Functionaries	Guilty, sentenced to 3 months in prison
Hsu O-jung	Offenses Against Public Functionaries	Guilty, sentenced to 5 months in prison
Ch'en O-pin	Offenses Against Public Functionaries	Guilty, sentenced to 4 months in prison
Wu O-yen	Offenses Against Public Functionaries	Acquitted
Ch'en O-ch'eng	Offenses Against Public Functionaries	Guilty, sentenced to 4 months in prison
Huang O-yang	Offenses Against Public Functionaries	Guilty, sentenced to 4 months in prison
Hsieh O-yu	Offenses Against Public Functionaries	Guilty, sentenced to 4 months in prison
Wang O-yi	Aggravated Larceny	Acquitted
Kuo O-hao	Aggravated Larceny	Acquitted
Li O-ling	Destruction of Articles Under Official Custody	Guilty, sentenced to 4 months in prison
Huang O-chi	Destruction of Articles Under Official Custody	Guilty, sentenced to 5 months in prison