The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office accused Lee of inciting others to contravene Article 118 of the Criminal Code, which prohibits destroying, damaging or pulling down the national flag or emblem in public for the purpose of insulting the nation. The Taipei District Court in September last year acquitted him on the grounds that his act was a form of constitutionally protected speech. Lee disputed the guilty ruling, saying that it was impossible to prove whether the flag that was burned conformed to the proportions specified in the National Emblem and National Flag of the Republic of China Act (中華民國國徽國旗法). The judge in the first ruling had said Lee did not intend a “pure destruction of, elimination of or insult of the national flag,” and that his form of expression was constitutionally protected. The bag did not break and paint did not leak out, but Chen was arrested on site for attempted vandalism.
