Taoyuan prosecutors have indicted a Zhongli District police officer over a controversial incident last year in which he threw a female music teacher to the ground and then handcuffed her after she refused to submit to questioning.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office had initially declined to press charges in the case, but the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office ordered local authorities last December to conduct a second review after the music teacher, Chan Hui-ling (???), filed an appeal.
During the incident, which took place on April 22 last year, a police officer, surnamed Yeh (?), approached Chan as she walked near Zhongli train station and attempted to question her, asking her name, if she lived nearby, and whether she was carrying identification.
When Chan asked why she had come under suspicion, the officer explained he was worried “someone reported you missing” — apparently having assumed she was an unaccounted-for migrant worker, according to a partial video of the encounter released by the police.
In the police video, a dispute breaks out after Chan refuses to answer Yeh, with Chan appearing to use the words “really stupid.” When the officer asks if she was calling him stupid, Chan replies “what you did violated …”
The officer then interjects with “okay, well you’ve just called me stupid” before the video clip stops a few seconds later.
However, videos of the subsequent moments taken by bystanders show Yeh throwing Chan to the ground and handcuffing her as she screams in panic. He then places her under arrest for “obstructing a public official.”
In Facebook posts after the incident, Chan argued that Yeh did not have grounds to question her, and accused him of abusing his power by slamming her to the ground, handcuffing her, and holding her at a police station for questioning.
In a press release Thursday, prosecutors said they had charged Yeh with offenses against personal freedom by a public official after conducting a second review of evidence in the case.
In a statement following Thursday’s indictment, the Taoyuan Police Department’s Zhongli Precinct vowed to respect the judicial process and to step up training to ensure officers carry out their duties legally and with a sense of proportionality.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel