TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taiwanese woman has gone public with the details of an alleged sexual assault by the former Deputy Director of the Polish Office in Taipei, and prosecutors' reasons for not bringing a case against the man.

The woman, who filed a complaint against then-diplomat Bartosz Rys in November 2022, shared her experience on social media on Saturday (June 10). She said that she had been sexually assaulted by Rys after repeatedly telling him she was not interested in his advances, and she had suffered significant mental trauma as a result.

Seeing all those who have recently spoken out about sexual assault in Taiwan, the woman said she said she was encouraged to share her own experience. This comes as Taiwan faces its own "#MeToo" movement, with more than a dozen accusations involving political figures since late May.

In a statement provided to Taiwan News on Monday (June 12), the Polish office confirmed that it had contact with Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), police, and prosecutors regarding the woman's complaint against Rys. Prosecutors decided not to charge the ex-diplomat, who subsequently left the country, a decision which MOFA has publicly supported, per UDN.

Prosecutors' reasoning for dismissing the case involved her international background, age, and education, the woman said. The woman said that messages sent to her friends after the incident were taken out of context and used as evidence against her.

She said the reasoning prosecutors gave for dismissing her complaint read: “at the time of this case, (the woman) was 27-years-old, had a graduate school education… and had lived in Germany for four years." She said prosecutors felt that because she did not yell out or call the police when the incident occurred, there was a lack of evidence of wrongdoing.

“Her reaction afterward is very different from that of a person who is being sexually assaulted,” the prosecutor said, according to the statement.

A Facebook thread detailing just some of the stories of sexual assault to emerge in Taiwan over the past 10 days.

The woman said she sent a message to her friend after the alleged assault, saying, "I'm safe, it's fine," and this was used by Rys’s lawyer as evidence of no wrongdoing. In her statement, she said she understands how this could confuse a lawyer, as she herself was confused during the incident.

“When (it) happened, my mind went blank, my body froze, and only my mouth could utter words. My muscles, usually strong and capable, became utterly useless,” she wrote.

She said her response to Rys’s advancement was a result of social conditioning experienced by women. “Even when saying no, I still felt the need to be polite, I made an effort to communicate,” she said.

關於本人與賴小姐於個人臉書頁面張貼的案件，我想點出本件已經經過台北地方檢察署、台灣高等檢察署的檢察官做成決定認定指控不成立。

而我同時也想說明，賴小姐在過程中向我要求250萬元台幣的和解條件以交換其撤回指控。在這樣的脈絡下，我不能排除本件是為了索取金錢而提出的指控，(1/2)

— Bartosz Ryś 〔錯誤字元無法儲存〕〔錯誤字元無法儲存〕 (@rys_bartosz) June 10, 2023

The woman said she had approached Rys for an explanation after the incident and felt “shattered” by his response. In the social media post, she said Rys had told her he acted this way because it was the middle of the night, there was a “beautiful drunk girl in my bed, and I was horny. That’s it."

Rys responded to the statement, which has now been viewed over 435,000 times on Twitter. He wrote in Chinese that the woman accusing him had previously asked for NT$2.5 million (US$81,000) to settle the case.

He told people to stop sharing the woman’s social media post for his family’s sake. After Rys's post, the woman posted again, saying, "I am not lying."

In the initial post, the woman accusing Rys of sexual assault said that after she filed a complaint against him, Rys’s wife had visited her workplace with the couple’s son. The woman said Rys’s wife told her not to go to the press, saying that doing so would destroy her son’s future.

The woman who brought the complaint against Rys has not yet responded to requests for comment.