Taipei Times
Date: Aug 21, 2019
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter
The Taiwan High Court yesterday ruled that Lee Cheng-lung (李承龍) and three other China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) members must pay NT$220,000 in damages to the Sun Yat-sen Elementary School for smashing two 100-year-old guardian “lion-dog” statues in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) in May 2017.
Lee had told the court that the quartet’s actions were politically motivated by their antagonism toward Japan’s colonial rule of Taiwan, therefore considered protected actions under the principle of free speech.
The judges rejected his argument.
They found Lee, Chiu Chin-wei (邱晉芛), Wang Chi-pin (王啟鑌) and Lu Cheng-yuan (呂承遠) guilty of destruction of public or private property by using a sledgehammer and other tools to damage the statues in front of the school on Chuanyuan Road.
The vandalism outraged local residents, who consider the statues cultural treasures, and was also criticized by historic societies working to promote tourism in Beitou by protecting the district’s Japanese-era landscape and architecture. [FULL STORY]