TAIPEI – Several branch stores in Taipei and Taoyuan County of Taiwan’s largest 4 convenience store chains (7-11, Family Mart, Hilife, OK Mart) was searched by police on September 26. The police cuffed employees from a dozen of stores for a magazine allegedly spreading content of sexual abuse. The store chains representatives accused the police of taking measures similar to “white terror” era on Thursday.

The companies said that the employees terrified by the arrest got detained for one night. An employee said it was such a nightmare to be cuffed and arrested.

Lawyer Wu mong-liang (吳孟良) indicated that handcuffing employees may breach adequacy of law enforcement. The police made a big fuss because obscenity is a misdemeanor of which the sentence is no more than two years.

The police responded that they would handcuff suspects for fear of escape. If the process caused discomfort to store employees, they would consider adjusting the practice. They resorted to overnight detainment for interrogations not conducted at night and had handed over the agreement for those employees to sign.

After hearing the statement from the police, an employee said they were too terrified to escape. But the police still abused power to handcuff them. A vice branch store owner said they observed company policies to cover the magazines in plastic and put on a sign to forbid minors from viewing and purchasing magazines with adult content.

According to sources, Taipei County police received reports on sexual abuse content and launched the search action.