High Court overrules Losheng petition

The lawyer who represented the sanatorium in the case, Cheng Wen-lung, said he was not surprised by the outcome in view of the court’s “old ways” and was prepared to appeal the decision “until the very end.”

Cheng and supporters of the sanatorium’s preservation alike expressed their disappointment with the ruling.

Cheng said the court overruled his petitions to have a judge inspect the site, as well as to submit the statements of expert witnesses and appraisers who would have shed light on the historic value of the site and hence the importance of its preservation.

The court made a hasty decision without even bothering to take a look at the site in question or listen to what experts have to say, added Cheng.

Cheng said that he has also approached the Judicial Yuan with proposals for new legislation that would give the current residents of the sanatorium “a viable alternative.”

The Losheng sanatorium was built in 1932 by the Japanese, who ruled Taiwan until 1945. It now still houses 45 elderly lepers who refuse to move.

Developers plan to knock down the remaining 13-hectare (32-acre) facilities, after some 17 hectares have already been taken away for the construction of a maintenance depot for the Hsinchuang MRT line in the Greater Taipei area.

But some scholars and protesters have called for the preservation of the time-honored sanatorium in the new form of the “Losheng Human Rights Cultural Park.”

In April residents of the sanatorium formally filed a lawsuit against the Taipei County government as an attempt to stop the demolition.

A series of protests have led to violent brushes with police to save the home for lepers which is slated for demolition to make way for the Hsinchuang MRT depot.

The most recent protest occurred last month when some 300 people, most of whom were students, tried to forcibly block the resumption of the construction of the MRT maintenance depot in the yard of the leprosy house, with some even binding themselves to it with iron chains.

But police used sharp scissors to cut off the iron chains one by one, and drove the protesters away from the construction site.

In response to the protest, Lawmaker Lai Hsing-yuan of the opposition Taiwan Solidarity Union lashed out at the government for undermining the interests of the underprivileged. “This is the darkest day for human rights. Where are the promises of ‘politicians’?” he said to reporters.

Still, many Hsinchuang residents and some lepers who formerly lived in the sanatorium have expressed their strong support for the MRT line under construction.

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