Relevant Legal Provisions

Criminal Code Article 210：A person who forges or alters a private document in a way that may cause harm to the public or another person shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than five years.

Facts and Reasons

The defendant (our client) served as the secretary-general of a certain labor union. In the course of handling affairs, the defendant assisted the in renting a house in Taipei. Unexpectedly, the former chairman of the (the complainant) accused the defendant of document forgery—specifically, of signing a house lease under another person’s name and using the forged contract to claim rent payments from the union.

Prosecutor's Disposition

After completing the investigation, the District Prosecutors Office concluded that the defendant should not be indicted.

According to Article 152, Paragraph 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the determination of criminal facts must be based on evidence, and without evidence, no crime can be deemed established.
Upon review, all official seals related to the union’s lease contracts were personally kept by the complainant. The lease contract in question bore both the union’s seal and the complainant’s seal. Moreover, testimony from witnesses, account statements, and meeting records all supported that the premises were indeed used as the union’s office and that the had paid rent to the defendant. Therefore, it is difficult to conclude that any forgery occurred.

In addition, no other evidence was found proving that the defendant committed the alleged offense. Consequently, the case was deemed to lack sufficient grounds for prosecution.

(Some details of the case have been adjusted or omitted to protect the parties' rights.)

Attorneys: Vincent Huang、Ian Yan