By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Taipei police yesterday questioned a man for allegedly organizing an online campaign for an “Occupy the Taipei MRT” protest, amid criticism that the government is resorting to clamping down on “thought crime” to curb freedom of expression.
Police located the man, surnamed Chou, a resident of Chiayi County’s Fanlu Township (番路), through the Internet protocol address he used to post a message about the campaign. They said the campaign is against the law.
Reporting to the police department’s Mobile Division, Chou said he did not initiate the campaign and only reposted a message on Facebook, which he did not know was illegal.
The campaign called for 33,000 people to board Tamsui Line MRT trains at the same time to protest against what the organizers said was the government’s failure to respond to the public’s demand that construction on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) be halted.
Police said Chou may have violated Article 153 of the Criminal Code by “inciting others to violate the law or disobey a legal order.” If tried and convicted, he could face a maximum of two years in prison.
The police and the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp on Wednesday warned antinuclear protesters against organizing or participating in the campaign, saying such a protest would violate the Criminal Code and participants could face a five-year jail term.
The police launched an investigation a few hours after the message was posted on the Internet.
However, the investigation has been questioned by legal experts and netizens, with lawyer Tseng Wei-kai (曾威凱) saying that it was a “ridiculous political investigation.”
Chou did not break the law even if he initiated the campaign, Tseng said, adding that prosecutors and the police could try to use the case as a warning to stop people from participating in mass demonstrations and expressing their views.
The administration should not distort the law in an attempt to threaten the public, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said.
The Taipei Rapid Transit Corp is wrong to cite Article 50 of the Mass Rapid Transit Act (大眾捷運法) because the proposed activity would neither damage its trains, facilities or equipment, nor interfere with normal operations, Kuan said.
“I do not see any violation in it,” he said.
The government’s response to recent protests has raised concerns among legal experts and rights advocates, who say that it appears to be resorting to punishing “thought crime” and threats to scare people off the streets.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Jonathan Chen (陳純敬) said on Wednesday that the ministry and the National Police Agency were considering implementing preventive detention against “radical protesters and repeat offenders” in mass demonstrations.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), Minister of Justice Luo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) and Minister of the Interior Chen Wei-zen (陳威仁) reiterated the government’s “determination to maintain social order and harmony,” and said that protesters had “hijacked Taiwan’s democracy with their illegal behavior.”
Preventive detention is an absurd measure and the government seems to have adopted an iron-fist policy to oppress the public’s freedom of expression, lawyer Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said.
“If the Ministry of the Interior has adopted such a policy, it would be the re-emergence of a police state,” lawyer Chan Shun-keui (詹順貴) said.