Action Call | "Taiwanese Version of Cambodia" State Compensation Case | Verdict Press Conference

Did you know?

Our country requires prosecutors and police to observe the principle of non-disclosure of investigation, the purpose of which is to safeguard the rights and interests of defendants, criminal suspects, and victims, and more importantly, to implement the presumption of innocence.

When our state makes a mistake—that is, when public servants exercise public authority in the performance of their duties and cause damage to the freedom or rights of the people—the state must be held accountable. This is also the legislative intent of the State Compensation Act. Ironically, however, if prosecutors or police violate the principle of non-disclosure of investigation and infringe upon the rights of defendants or victims, the parties concerned cannot easily demand accountability from the state, even with the existence of the State Compensation Act. This is because even if the court acknowledges that prosecutorial and police personnel have violated the principle of non-disclosure of investigation, the strict determination of "causation" often leads to the conclusion that the people's harm cannot necessarily be attributed to the violation of non-disclosure; therefore, the state bears no responsibility.

In other words, despite the principle of non-disclosure of investigation and the State Compensation Act, citizens may still find themselves with nowhere to turn for help.

If you care about this issue, we would like to invite you to learn about the following case:

On August 9, 2022, the Taiwan Kaohsiung District Prosecutor's Office cracked a cross-border job scam case and independently issued a press release titled: "Citizens Lured to Dubai for High-Paying Jobs, Tragic Control of Personal Freedom: Prosecutors and Investigators Crack Dubai Telecom Fraud and Human Trafficking Case; Two Taiwanese Masterminds Detained and Denied Visitation upon Request." The Kaohsiung District Prosecutor's Office also provided relevant photos and videos to facilitate media reporting. Later, the Control Yuan issued a correction stating that this violated the principle of non-disclosure of investigation, pointing out that the source of the video was not footage of citizens being electrocuted and beaten while working in Dubai, but rather images of victims being abused by other fraud syndicates in Cambodia.

After paying a ransom and returning to Taiwan, the victim accused the Kaohsiung District Prosecutor's Office that, because the office failed to properly de-identify the footage, the exposed video subjected the victim to more severe imprisonment and abuse, resulting in complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) upon returning to Taiwan. However, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutor's Office absurdly claimed that it could not be proven that the victim suffered more severe abuse because of the video, arguing that even if it released the video without fulfilling its duty of verification, the harm suffered by the victim had nothing to do with the Prosecutor's Office.

Although the Control Yuan's investigation report pointed out that the Kaohsiung District Prosecutor's Office violated the principle of non-disclosure of investigation and criticized it for failing to provide counseling assistance and compensation measures to the victim, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutor's Office has still not admitted its mistake to this day and is unwilling to take responsibility for the harm suffered by the victim. In response, the Judicial Reform Foundation, the Covenants Watch, the Women's Rescue Foundation, and the Taiwan Association for Human Rights will hold a verdict press conference in front of the Kaohsiung District Court on July 28. We sincerely invite local citizens who care about the issue of non-disclosure of investigation to join us at the verdict press conference.

Verdict Press Conference Time

References

Control Yuan Investigation Report 112 Nei-Tiao No. 0042

Contact

Chen, Kuan-Chen, Legal Specialist, Judicial Reform Foundation
Email: olivia@jrf.org.tw
Phone: (02)2523-1178 #21