Spanish Surfer Stabbed by 'Fishermen' in Kenting

I’m not saying that you need to hire a lawyer to represent you as this is a criminal case, what I meant is, why not counsel a lawyer who is fluent in either English or Spanish to understand the situation better? Like you can ask them what the fuck was going on that they didn’t conduct a search etc.

Good to know that interpreters were available.

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Maybe at the beginning, when I already had one and at that time he helped a bit giving me some light, but at this stage it´s all in the Court´s hands.

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Yes, you are right and this behavior is endemic in Southern Taiwan. Those honeymoon foreigners always insisting how friendly everyone is and that Southern Taiwan is so much more representative of local culture should get a free stab with the knife from some blue slipper DPP-Hoklo hillbilly and subsequent investigation courtesy of the Pingtung County Police Bureau.

If you were local, police would have probably sided with whomever they believe comes from the locally more powerful/prominent/influential family and conveniently lost all paperwork of the case once some compensation money had been paid.

Police being too close with local communities sure lets me reminisce the good old days of the Taiwan Garrison Command, where personnel had no ties to the local community and had an extra eye on blue slipper wearing barbarians.

That being said, the fact that the prosecutor is prosecuting the case shows that the justice system works overall.

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The day I went to the police to give my testimony (they compressed it in half a page, told me to go at 12 but they arrive at 4, tried to convince me that the stabbing to the heart was made with the 8 cm diameter circle of the weapon, asked me if I was willing to negotiate with the attackers and denied my request to investigate further on witnesses etc… while giving me angry faces) me and my wife and wife´s family left the police station having no doubt that some cop(s) was/were friends with a family member of the attackers. My wife´s uncle who is a retired cop in Kaohsiung agreed to this conclusion as well.
Cops here in Taiwan are quite corrupted, this judgment is based also on other experiences and they are very unfairly prejudists when it comes to foreigners.
Now the judicial system is a much different field as judges and lawyers based their job in the Law that has been established. I hope for the sake of the people that the judicial system in Taiwan is as robust and fair as it is supposed to be. For now I do not have an experience to give an opinion on this.

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i’m just not sure why you haven’t got any media involved… its a sad fact but loss of face here gets shit done.

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Hello Jack, today after 430 pm they told me that I could call to find out about the court´s ruling on the criminal case. Today is sentencing day, the trial ended 3 weeks ago. Can you look in the Court´s website about this ruling? That´s in 40 mins from now…

Sure, lemme take a look.

Please bear in mind, I’m an old guy, so I have to re-learn how to do this just about every time. :slight_smile:

Edited to add: So far I haven’t been able to find a criminal judgment issued today from Pingtung District Court with your name in it. I also tried putting in just the name of one of the defendants, and I didn’t get anything.

As a check to see whether I had messed up something obvious, or whether the site’s software had changed, I increased the time range to include the time of the earlier judgment. The earlier judgment appeared, which increases the likelihood that I didn’t mess up. That doesn’t mean I didn’t mess up :slight_smile:.

Maybe someone will show up who is better at searching the court site than I am. Sorry I couldn’t find it. It’s 6:22 p.m. I’ll try again later.

Edited to add: It’s 7:19 p.m., and I still haven’t been able to find the judgment in question.

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Thank you for taking the time. I am totally blind when placing a search there. Anyways I will have my wife calling tomorrow morning, as that is what they told me to do (call today after 430pm). There is also the probability that it may take some time before they place an update in their database. Let´s see tomorrow.

To the OP.
What kind of punishment are you yourself hoping the offenders will get ?
I am just curious what your own expectations are ?

Attempted murder charge (stub wound that stopped 1 cm from the heart (3cm deep); plus blows to the head area with 4 heavy weapons).
The fact that they never accepted responsability, gives them points to get a high sentence within this charge and also their criminal record should also add to this. One had already an attempted murder charge but the accuser withdrew the charge. They had records for drugs, burglaries and some other.

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You’re welcome. I’ll try to remember to check again tomorrow.

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Will you appeal if their sentence wont be up to the original charge ?

I hope they get what they deserved (and as you described above), but mind that outcome, I am pretty sure they would appeal …
If they do so (appealing), would they still be in prison or out on bail ?

The latest judgements uploaded seem to be the ones on July 26 for Taipei court.

Tonight I seem to have gotten a similar result with criminal judgments from Pingtung District Court. I asked for everything criminal from that court from July 15 through 31, and as far as I could tell, I didn’t get anything past July 27.

My wife called the Court this morning and it seems that there has been a verdict: all 4 attackers have been convicted for attempted murder, one gets 6 years, one gets 5 years and two get 3 years and 6 months. They still have the right to appeal which can be exercised within 10 days of receiving written notice of the sentencing. This notice will be mailed out in August 10th, so by the end of the month and by calling the Court I will know if they have appealed or not. If they do, the appeal will happen in Kaohsiung and I will still have to assist the proceedings as a witness. If they do not appeal they will have to go to prison right away although they could be released earlier if they have good behavior in prison. How early I don´t know.
The civil procedure claiming money damages from my part will start right away independently of the appeal. I will be representing myself with the help of a translator.

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Excellent news…congratulations!

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Man, so glad they got sentenced to jail for what they did to you.

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I’m happy to hear that this is working out for you. This is the second instance I’ve heard of very good, honest judges when the situation involved foreigners. The other situation was related to a money issue. Lots of lying from the other side but the judge just cut through all the bs by using simple common sense (he/she used the fact the suing party was a foreigner and so couldn’t have done some of the things the other side was claiming, etc.). Anyway, this is good news.

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To the OP
As the sentence is out by now, are you concerned about the safety of yourself and your family ?

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