Macau University PhD Student Responds to Sexual Assault Allegations

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* By Thérèse Tu

A Macao University (UM) doctoral student accused of sexual assault by a former UM student released a public statement rejecting the allegations against him and expressing that he will take legal action to protect his “rights and its reputation ”.

A former UM student, currently a student at the University of Chicago in the United States, in an open letter denounced to UM that she was raped while she was a student in Macau by a doctoral student in the Faculty of science and technology of the institution.

The former student also alleges that she continues to experience sexual harassment online and to date her open letter has gathered 191 co-signers, according to the latest update on her Instagram account.

The girl revealed in the letter that in August 2020, she was raped by a doctoral student in Shenzhen, pointing out that she suffered long-term emotional, physical and sexual abuse during their relationship.

In the public statement recently released by the alleged doctoral student, he said the content posted by the girl on social media platforms maliciously distorted “facts”, constituted “cyberbullying” and had severely affected her life.

“I have no choice but to protect my rights with legal measures,” he said, “and I handed over the collected evidence to the Judicial Police (PJ) for investigation. I think the PCs will find out the truth about this incident.

He also said he hoped the public could remove “inappropriate comments” from the Internet and stop disseminating “false information”.

Responding to her public statement, the young girl claimed in another open letter that she believes the public has a right to her freedom to choose to believe and support her and her friends based on all the testimony. and evidence they provided, emphasizing that people should not be “threatened or silenced” by the doctoral student for expressing support.

“Our letter is specifically intended to request a full investigation from an authorized and disinterested third party, which we believe to be the university, as Macau police did not take the case,” she said, ” that [her previous open letter] would be published to raise awareness of these issues rather than trying to incite hatred or even cyberbullying.

She also stressed that she hopes the university can issue regulations to prevent sexual harassment.

In a response to student media at UM, the university assured that it was “monitoring the incident” and that the complaint had already been passed on to the police, adding that the university would not add its comments on this incident to protect the privacy of the affected students.

However, PJ confirmed in a response that he received the complainant’s report, but because it is a rape charge and the complainant is not in Macau, he will not open the case. .

“By law, if it is a charge of rape, the person in question must go to the police station to personally report the crime,” the PJ stressed, adding that “if the identity cannot be confirmed , the case will be filed ”.

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