Public fury over rulings by "incompetent judges" in a string of child-abuse cases drew thousands of protesters to a weekend rally outside Taiwan's Presidential Office.
Clad in black T-shirts, protesters waved white roses in a show of anger at what they called "dinosaur judges," who they said needed to be removed after defendants were cleared or given only light sentences in three recent cases.
In one case involving a three-year-old girl, the Supreme Court rejected prosecutors' appeal against the suspect's acquittal, saying they had failed to prove that the child was opposed to the sexual activity.
Another case saw the acquittal of a male suspect charged with molesting his two-year-old niece, after judges said they believed the victim had been mistaken about the time of the alleged crime. The third case saw a child abuser jailed for 38 months - less than half the sentence sought by prosecutors.
The bi-partisan rally late Saturday marked one of the biggest in Taiwan since 1997, when 100,000 took to streets of Taipei over the kidnapping, torture and murder of singer Pai Ping-ping's 17-year-old daughter.
"The rulings of the 'dinosaur judges' are so ridiculous that we feel we have to stand up here incompetent judges must be removed," said one of the organisers of Saturday's campaign, identified only by his surname, Tseng.
Tseng said the campaign for phasing out incompetent judges and the overhaul of Taiwan's judicial system had been endorsed by more than 300,000 people in just about 40 days.
In response to the outrage, President Ma Ying-jeou has ordered judicial authorities to step up training for judges and to press for the passage of a bill speeding up their retirement.
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