Kaohsiung Prison riot
| Time | First two guards taken: 11 February 2015, 4:30 p.m. (UTC+8)[1] Head warden released: 12 February 2015, 5:00 a.m. (UTC+8)[2] |
|---|---|
| Location | Kaohsiung, Taiwan |
The Kaohsiung Prison riot was a hostage situation that occurred at Kaohsiung Prison in Taiwan starting 11 February 2015. Six inmates, whose ringleader was a member of Bamboo Union,[3] seized weapons including assault rifles and took the warden hostage for a 14-hour high-profile stand-off which caught media attention nationwide. The group of inmates eventually committed mass suicide.[4] The inmates protested that the former President of Taiwan Chen Shui-bian, who jailed for 20 years for money laundering, was granted medical parole due to his status as a political prisoner[5][6] while other prisoners were denied. This is the first ever prison riot with officials held hostage in the history of Taiwan.[7][8]
Aftermath
A subsequent investigation found that the head prison warden was unaware of the hostage crisis for 30 minutes after it began.[9] On 26 February, the Ministry of Justice announced that 23 prison officials had been reprimanded for their handling of the incident.[10] The head warden was demoted and given a demerit. Demerits were also served to two of his top aides, and to the head of the Agency of Corrections.[11]
Popular culture
Taiwanese media compared[12] this riot to the 1988 Seoul prison jailbreak in which ko escaped to protest the seven-year sentence of Chun Kyeong-hwan, the brother of South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan, who was convicted of embezzlement and tax evasion.[13] Ji thought it unfair that he received a longer sentence for stealing a smaller amount of money. The Korean movie The Holiday starring Lee Sung-jae was based on this incident.
References
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