20100710 KMT lawmaker presses assault charges

KMT lawmaker presses assault charges

By Flora Wang and Vincent Y. Chao
STAFF REPORTERS
Saturday, Jul 10, 2010, Page 3

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Wu Yu-sheng is shown a fraction of a second after he was hit in the corner of his right eye by a timer on Thursday during a brawl that erupted in the legislature over the review of the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement.

PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) yesterday pressed assault charges against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲).

As lawmakers brawled on the legislative floor on Thursday over how the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) should be reviewed, Wu was hit in the head by a timer thrown by Huang, bloodying the corner of his right eye.

After Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) announced that the legislature accepted the KMT caucus’ motion to refer the ECFA and a cross-trait copyright protection agreement directly to a second reading, Wu was sent to the nearby National Taiwan University Hospital and received eight stitches.

Wu yesterday said doctors told him he was lucky because he could have been blinded if the timer had hit him in the eye.

“I decided to press charges against [Huang] because [DPP] legislators Twu [Shiing-jer (涂醒哲)], Pan [Men-an (潘孟安)] and Lin [Shu-fen (林淑芬)] accused me of faking the incident,” Wu said.

“I did not file the suit to target him [Huang]. I only hope to stop similar incidents from happening on the legislative floor again,” he added.

The KMT caucus yesterday also called a press conference to support Wu , accusing Huang of being a “hypocrite.”

KMT legislators Kuo Su-chun (郭素春), Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛), Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧) and Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) put a timer on a scale at the conference, showing it weighs about 1.1kg.

“Huang always said that he was different from other DPP legislators and even condemned violence,” Kuo said. “He is such a hypocrite.”

At a separate setting ­yesterday, Huang said he would take full responsibility for the incident.

“I am willing to take responsibility for my actions. Regardless if it’s repayments or any other responsibilities,” Huang said. “The only thing left for me to do is to express my apology and regret to Legislator Wu.”

Huang said he underestimated the harm that could be caused by the timer, stressing that he wasn’t aiming at any specific person when he threw it into the air.

Huang’s action was also condemned yesterday by DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), who said that the opposition party did not support his actions and that the incident was a “big mistake.” However, at the same time, he rejected Wu’s lawsuit against Huang saying that he did not see a reason for it because Huang had already apologized.

Meanwhile, DPP Legislator Kuo Wen-chen (郭玟成), who suffered a broken rib after being pushed off the speaker’s podium by KMT lawmakers during the brawl on Thursday, yesterday said he does not plan to file suit against the KMT lawmaker that injured him.