I was arrested and need advice

When you receive an official summons, check the name of the plaintiff.

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Thanks

Hi all, well I got my first letter, but still no court date, I had a friend translate it but she wasn’t really able to tell me exactly what those two charges are for, can someone please help me? Thank you :frowning:

Criminal Code of the Republic of China
http://law.moj.gov.tw/MOBILE/lawEng.aspx?pcode=c0000001
Chapter 5 Offenses of Obstructing an Officer In Discharge of Duties
妨害公務罪

Article 135
A person who employs threats or violence against a public official who is engaged in the performance of his duties shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than three years, short-term imprisonment, or a fine of not more than three hundred yuan.
A person who employs threats or violence with purpose to compel a public official to perform an act relating to his public duties, with purpose to obstruct the lawful performance of such public duties, or with purpose to cause such public officials to resign shall be subject to the same punishment.
If the commission of an offense specified in one of the two preceding paragraphs results in the death of a public official, the offender shall be sentenced to life imprisonment or imprisonment for not less than seven years; if it results in aggravated injury, the offender shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not less than three years but not more than ten years.

侮辱公務員公署罪
Article 140
A person who offers an insult to a public official during the legal discharge of his duties or publicly offers an insult with respect to the legal discharged of such duties shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than six months, short-term imprisonment, or a fine of not more than one hundred yuan.
A person who publicly offers an insult to a public office shall be subject to the same punishment.

In Chinese:
中華民國刑法
第 二 編 分則
第 五 章 妨害公務罪
http://law.moj.gov.tw/LawClass/LawParaDeatil.aspx?Pcode=C0000001&LCNOS=+135+++&LCC=2

So according to this it sounds like I am definitely going to jail…

Not necessarily. Jail sentences under a certain length are commutable to fines. They might sentence you to some time and you’ll be out of pocket the appropriate amount in fines (1000nt per day?).

It says

That would be separate from the jail sentence. If a sentence is given, if it is under a certain length, it can effectively be paid out (for a heck of a lot more than 100nt).

this is the part that worries me. i did assault them, feel like I’m going to be sick, I can’t afford that.

Did you hurt anyone seriously? All we can do is speculate. However, if you didn’t hurt anyone and you’re contrite and cooperative, you’ll probably have to pay a few thousand USD to commute a short sentence. Maybe they’ll let you off even lighter.

not seriously, a few scrapes i believe, which they took photos of.

And I hope so, I really do.

The Chinese provides a little clarity. It refers to 重傷者, or severely injured (translated as "aggravated’ makes it vague). From your description, no one was seriously injured. Again, no guarantees, but you probably won’t come off too badly.

oh I see, in Germany an aggravated assault could just be pushing someone, or even tapping them in Anger.

That has put my mind at rest. thank you

The first sentence on the image you put says, your charges are based on the first item of Article 135 and the first item of Article 140.

aggravated injury part is not included.

The whole article is included in the image, including the serious injury or death parts. This does not mean that he will be charged accordingly (obviously). However, he did need to clarify if he had hurt the officer seriously, as that section is listed, just not under the first lines. Hard to say what he will face. Most likely not much.

That part is Appendix, and I think the sentence at the top says on his offenses.

I can’t figure the whole thing out about the difference in monetary values for fines, but @Feiren discussed the difference in a thread that dealt with another article of the Criminal Code:

I can’t guarantee that the above is accurate (but that’s not to discredit Feiren; I’m just posting a disclaimer so that I can weasel out of any problems that might arise from my post). While I’m at it, I can’t guarantee the accuracy of anything else in this post.

I tried to figure out the multiplier of 30 that Feiren mentioned, but I can’t get past the “Act Governing the Conversion of Currency Units Used in Existing Laws and Regulations into New Taiwan Dollars,” which gives a multiplier of three:

http://law.moj.gov.tw/Eng/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?PCode=G0380048

Feiren’s post makes sense, though. Maybe the multiplier of 30 comes from some other source.

Edited to add:

I don’t know if this law, which has been given the English name “Act of Criteria on Raise of Fines,” is the source that changes the multiplier from three to 30, but it looks as if it might be:

https://mojlaw.moj.gov.tw/LawContentE.aspx?LSID=FL010154

There’s more to that law than the above quote, and there may be some regulations that go into greater detail.

@Germantech, I didn’t mean to hijack your thread, but the old fine amounts have been a puzzling thing to me for some time, and this may help people to understand the fines. Or if it’s wrong, someone may correct it, and that may help people to understand them.

I’m not a lawyer and I don’t play one on TV. I suspect you are not also. It isn’t the appendix. It is the “full text” (全文) of the article of the law referenced at the top of the page.

The full text of the article includes provisions for serious injury or death to the public official. He was worried that he was going to be made subject to that section. I asked if he had seriously hurt anyone. He says no, so it is unlikely that it will be invoked.

Still neither of us are lawyers, so we cannot say with certainty what he will or will not face, only speculate.

I’m neither a lawyer, but, I bet OP’s case is related to the first items of Articles 135 and 140, that is mentioned in the main body of the document.

Appendix (附錄) shows the full text of the related Articles, which can include unrelated items.

In addition, a case related to the 3rd item of Article 135 may not be handled by a summary court.

I am not a lawyer either, and this is taken from the German law which has a high probability to be similar in Taiwan.
You should collect the evidence of how drunk you were. Try to get somehow good statements from the police involved/present at the time of the incident.
Witnesses bartenders who served you the drinks, how many how fast and what time.

Get a lawyer! Imperative!
This also refers to fines like traffic fines not criminal offence.