Taiwan woman sentenced for adultery
Agencies via Shanghai Daily, September 3, 2013
A widow who faced the possibility of 298 years in jail for an affair with a married man has rekindled the debate over Taiwan' s controversial adultery laws.
The woman, 56, who was single during the five-year affair with her neighbor, was told she must serve two years in jail or pay a fine of NT$730,000 (US$24,300). She can still appeal the verdict.
But court officials said she had faced the possibility of 298 years in jail after judges used confessions from the pair to estimate they had a total of 894 trysts.
Under Taiwanese law, each offense was worth up to four months in jail, but judges at the district court in central Changhua county decided to reduce the sentence.
"Since the offense was not a felony, the judges decided to mete out what they thought was the proper punishment," said Yu Shih-ming, the court' s spokesman.
The man, 50, avoided legal punishment altogether after his wife, who had filed the complaint against the duo after learning of the affair, decided to forgive him and drop the lawsuit.
The case sparked new calls for adultery to be decriminalized.
"In the Changhua case, why was the woman punished but not her lover? This is unfair," said Lin Mei-hsun, deputy executive of the non-profit Modern Women' s Foundation.
Lin said the law does not ensure people will remain loyal to their spouses.
