Taipei drops charges against ‘The Slaughter’ authorBy Jason Pan and Wu Liang-yi / Staff reportersThe Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday dropped charges against US author Ethan Gutmann and Taiwanese political pundit Brian Wu (吳祥輝) in a defamation case brought by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) over Gutmann’s allegations that Ko had played a role in China’s forced organ harvesting program. US author Ethan Gutmann holds up a copy of his book The Slaughter in an undated photograph. When neither Gutmann nor Wu apologized, Ko’s lawyers on Oct. 4 filed a complaint in Taipei, accusing Gutmann of defamation. of In dropping the charges, prosecutors said that someone had asked whether Ko was a “liar,” prompting Gutmann to answer. They also cited written communication between the two when Gutmann was writing the book, and Ko had given him the go-ahead.

Source: Taipei Times August 27, 2020 15:56 UTC