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Summary The diplomat was deported from the United States for her involvement in a maid abuse case.
Taiwan on Tuesday impeached a diplomat who was deported from the United States for her involvement in a maid abuse case, officials said, accusing her of hurting the countrys image.Liu Hsien-hsien, former director of Taiwans mission in Kansas City, Missouri, was deported in February after she pleaded guilty to charges of mistreating two maids from the Philippines working at her US home.What she did violated the local law where she was assigned... This has severely hurt the countrys image, said the Control Yuan, the islands top government ombudsman in charge of disciplinary punishment of civil servants.One maid said Liu had taken her passport, banned her from leaving the house without permission, made her work 16 to 18 hour days at a quarter of the agreed wages, monitored her with surveillance cameras and restricted her sleeping.Liu, 64, has defended herself insisting she did not abuse the maids, but the watchdog bodys impeachment proposal means the case will be sent to the Commission on the Disciplinary Sanctions of Functionaries.The commission will decide on a penalty, ranging from a demerit to dismissal.Liu was arrested in November after one maid sought help from a Filipino she met at a grocery store. The diplomat reached a plea deal with prosecutors that allowed her to avoid spending up to five years in prison on charges of fraud in foreign labour contracting.She was sentenced to time served on a fraud charge and was ordered to pay $80,044 in restitution to the two maids, as well as a fine of $11,040 to cover the full costs of her incarceration and deportation.Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but has remained a key ally and a leading arms supplier to the island.
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