離開
進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Communist party members cleared of public nuisance
The entrance gate of Taiwan Tainan District Court is pictured in an undated photo. Photo: Wang Chun-chung, Liberty Times
By Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff writer, with CNA
Members of the Taiwan People’s Communist Party were yesterday found not guilty of charges linked to placing a mask designed to look like the Chinese flag on a statue of Japanese engineer Yoichi Hatta.
Lin Te-wang （林德旺）, Chang Meng-chung （張孟崇） and Cheng Chien-hsin （鄭建炘） put the mask on the statue near the Wushantou Reservoir （烏山頭水庫） on Feb. 1 last year, the Tainan District Court said in its ruling.
In a video they filmed and uploaded online, the three also made statements such as “do not let the coronavirus from Japan and the US infect Taiwanese,” “Japanese, go home” and “Taiwan is part of mainland China,” the court said.
They were charged with causing a public disturbance in contravention of the Social Order Maintenance Act （社會秩序維護法）.
The three said that they were stressing the importance of wearing masks, as the COVID-19 outbreaks in Japan and Taiwan were serious, but they did not admit to making the statements, the court said.
The statue was not blocked, and the three took down the mask after taking photographs and filming themselves for five minutes, the court said.
They did not cause an uproar, shout, hamper others or pose a threat to public safety, it added.
The judge said that they were expressing personal opinions, which should be protected by freedom of speech.
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” the judge said, quoting The Friends of Voltaire by English author Evelyn Beatrice Hall.
The judge said that their statements did not contain extreme hatred or incite crime, nor did they immediately cause any apparently adverse effects.
Based on the evidence provided, it was difficult to determine whether the three had contravened the law, the ruling said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
