Commenting on the case of NTU Sex Ping, who was accused of leaking personal information, former Deputy Minister of Education Ye Bingcheng was confirmed not to be prosecuted

Former Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Education Ye Bingcheng commented on the National Taiwan University sexual harassment case on Facebook last year. The injured students believed that the post exposed personal information such as names and Threads accounts, causing secondary harm, and filed a lawsuit for violating the personal information law and leaking confidentiality. The Taipei District Prosecutor's Office's investigation concluded that Ye had no intention of harming the interests of the victim, and the information involved had already been made public, so he would not prosecute. The student refused to accept the case and requested a reconsideration. The High Prosecutor's Office rejected it today and decided not to prosecute the whole case.

The whole case began when Ye Bingcheng commented on the National Taiwan University sexual harassment case on Facebook in April last year. The post was questioned for revealing the personal information of the murdered students. The Sexual Equality Council of the Ministry of Education investigated and determined that the sexual equality law was not violated. However, the students were dissatisfied with the result. They claimed that they had requested to delete the article but it was delayed for about a month. They questioned the unfair handling process and therefore filed a lawsuit. After Ye Bingcheng resigned as Parliamentary Secretary in August last year, the Taipei City Social Affairs Bureau found him in December of the same year to have violated the confidentiality provisions of the "Sexual Assault Crime Prevention Act" and fined him NT$50,000.

However, the Beijing Prosecutor's Office's non-indictment letter pointed out that Ye Bingcheng believed that the murdered students might have safety concerns, so he took the initiative to contact the professors and dean of National Taiwan University to learn about the school's care, counseling and crisis management procedures for students. The dean of National Taiwan University stated that if a student expresses the intention to harm himself, the school will activate the care and counseling mechanism; after Ye confirmed that the school has handling procedures, he did not report school security to other units, and his behavior was reasonable.

Prosecutors believed that the student first posted a message online asking Ye Bingcheng to respond, and Ye then explained the reason for contacting the school on Facebook. Judging from the context of the post, Ye mainly clarified the reasons for contacting the professor and dean of National Taiwan University, and expressed concern for the safety of students. There was no dissatisfaction or opposition between the two parties, and it is difficult to believe that Ye had the intention to seek benefits for himself or a third party, or to harm the rights and interests of students, which does not constitute a crime under personal information law.

As for the crime of civil servants leaking secrets other than national defense, the prosecutor pointed out that the crime must be based on "documents, drawings, information or items that should be kept secret"; the victim student had attended NTU school affairs meetings as a student representative, his full name was stated on the sign-in form, and he publicly stated that he was involved The sex incident and his views on the school's handling were subsequently reported by the media. In addition, his Threads account was originally a public account, so his name, account number and the incident involved were no longer secret. It was believed that even if Ye Bingcheng disclosed the information in the post, it still did not meet the requirements of the crime of leaking confidentiality.

The student was dissatisfied with the non-prosecution decision and requested reconsideration; the High Court rejected the decision and upheld the non-prosecution decision.