Letter: Foreigners do have rights

A common argument given by many of Taiwan's legal professionals and government officials is that "Taiwan is not a real country, and, as an East-Asian backwater, is not required to abide by basic judicial and human rights principles, such as the right to a trial and to be considered innocent until proven guilty."

I disagree, and I think many of Taiwan's residents would as well. This is not an acceptable argument to justify Taiwan's policy of extrajudicial deportation of foreign nationals.

Foreign nationals in Taiwan are subject to arbitrary extrajudicial punishment without being officially charged, and are refused the right to judicial review prior to deportation. There is no means for judicial intervention in consideration of their past record in Taiwan or their family situation prior to deportation. Unless the foreigner has sufficient guanxi, there is no justice for the accused and sentencing is carried out in lieu of a trial.

The denial of the right to trial prior to sentencing is a clear violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is an affront to the many nations that respect Taiwanese nationals in their territories as equal human beings under the law.

The government bears the burden of establishing "substantial evidence." Supporting the conviction on confessions and testimony alone are insufficient to constitute "substantial evidence." In a nation that upholds the rule of law, the government must establish that such evidence was not obtained through torture, coercion, bribery, fraud, or illegal detention.

The government of Taiwan should adopt rules of procedure. This affirms the rights of the accused to present his or her case either in person or with the assistance of a representative in a court of law.

The accused must be given the right to examine and challenge evidence that has been introduced against him or her.

The current system, in which foreign nationals are summarily sentenced, denies the accused access to the closed proceedings of the police.

Records of police investigations should be made available to the accused. Police and other agencies authorized to carry out extrajudicial convictions and deport people should be required to articulate the reasons on which their decisions were based.

Eric Lier
Taichung