Judiciary agrees to new privacy protections for crime victims after New Taipei school stabbing case
Taiwan's judiciary has promised tighter rules to protect crime victims' personal information, a change driven by the father of a murdered student whose home and workplace details were exposed in court papers.
- The father of Yang Cheng-hsun, the student killed in the New Taipei school stabbing, had his home and work address revealed during the case, leaving him afraid the attacker's side would show up at his door.
- KMT lawmaker Wu Tsung-hsien used the case to press for stronger safeguards, arguing victims deserve safety, a real hearing, and respect rather than a seat on the sidelines.
- He wants sensitive details stripped out before lawyers can read case files, the same way protections work for other high-risk victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and organized crime.
- Families in other killings have had to walk into court again and again and retell how their relative died, which itself becomes a form of punishment.
- The Judicial Yuan's secretary-general agreed on the spot to deliver both a victim data and safety protection framework and a support system for victim impact statements within three months.
Outlook: The Judicial Yuan now has a three-month clock to produce concrete rules, which will feed into the wider rewrite of Taiwan's criminal procedure law.