Four Singaporean men were convicted of raping two women in Taiwan on Friday, Taiwan news reported. However the report added that the convicts, who have been identified as Lau Wei Seng, Bryan Ong Kun Jun, Tan Juan Yin and Lim Wei Xuan, will not have to serve time behind bars.
According to Focus Taiwan, Lau Wei Seng was sentenced to a term of one year and eleven months with a suspension of five years, while Bryan Ong Kun Jun was given a term of one year and ten months and have been suspended for five years.
The reports said that Tan Juan Yin got one year and nine months, suspended for four years and Lim Wei Xuan got one year and eight months, suspended for four years. The authorities said that the four convicts will stay in Taiwan under supervised probation during the suspended period.
The report added that the suspended sentences were handed down because all four reached settlements and paid compensation to their victims.
Last year, the four 23-year-old men had committed the offences when they met the two local women. The reports said that the men had invited the victims back to where they were staying, before getting them drunk and raping them.
On December 13, the four men tried to leave Taiwan but they were arrested before they could escape.
The Central News Agency reported that the Taiwan Shihlin District Court said in a press release that the victims had forgiven the defendants and pleaded for leniency on their behalf.
The court also noted that four of the convicts were undergraduate students and said that they had been already "taught a tough lesson" as they were detained for more than eight months after their arrest. They were also unable to return to Singapore or continue their studies.
The agency also cited the court as saying the prison would hinder their rehabilitation and result in social costs.
