Human rights groups staged a protest outside the Ministry of Justice’s (MOJ) offices yesterday, accusing it of illegally executing four death row prisoners because the Council of Grand Justices had agreed to hear their cases.
“The executions on [Friday] night were illegal, because according to relevant regulations, execution orders cannot be signed when a case is under review by the Council of Grand Justices,” said Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠), chairman of the Taipei Bar Association’s Human Rights Protection Committee.
Four death row prisoners, Chang Wen-wei (張文蔚), Ko Shih-ming (柯世銘), Chang Wei-long (張慰龍), and Hong Chen-yao (洪晨耀), were executed in four different prisons at 7:30pm on Friday amid controversy over whether the nation should abolish capital punishment.
The prisoners were put to death “according to the law as the four were convicted of grave offenses such as kidnapping and murder, and multiple murders,” the ministry said in a statement.
It added that the executed inmates had not requested constitutional interpretations of their cases.
Until Friday’s executions, the ministry had not approved an execution since December 2005.
Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) executive director Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡) yesterday said her group had filed constitutional interpretation applications on behalf of all 44 prisoners on death row, but the Council of Grand Justices told the group they needed letters of authorization from the four people.
“I received the notice on April 23 that asked me to mail in the letters of authorization before May 3. I went to Chang Wei-long on that day, and he had his letter of authorization mailed out to me on April 26 and I received it on April 27,” Lin said.
She said that since the deadline was May 3, she had intended to wait until she received authorizations from all four before sending them together to the Council of Grand Justices.
“While the process was still ongoing, the ministry secretly executed the four prisoners,” Lin said, showing an enlarged copy of a letter of authorization signed by Chang Wei-long which asked Lin to file an application for a constitutional interpretation on his behalf.
“[Minister of Justice] Tseng Yung-fu [曾勇夫] said the applications for a constitutional interpretation [for the four executed prisoners] were invalid,” Kao said. “I would like to ask him — is it up to the Council of Grand Justices to decide whether an application is valid, or is it you, the minister of justice, who makes the decision?”
Lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Chthonic and anti-death penalty advocate Freddy Lim (林昶佐) said he suspected the MOJ did not announce news of the executions beforehand, as it normally does, “probably because the ministry knows it’s not acting totally legally in every detail and wanted to get it done first.”
Kao urged the MOJ to publicize all legal documents related to the four executed prisoners, including official notices from the Council of Grand Justices.
“As an attorney, I care more about whether all proper legal procedures have been completed, that’s my red line,” he said. “If that’s not the case, the minister should be held responsible for it.”
Taiwan law currently reserves the death penalty for serious crimes including aggravated murder, kidnapping and robbery. According to most public opinion polls, more than 70 percent of Taiwan people are in favor of the death penalty.
Lu Chin-te (陸晉德) — father of 10-year-old Lu Cheng (陸正), who was murdered after being kidnapped in 1987, said Friday’s execution was “a belated justice.”
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday called on the public to show support for the executions, saying the four inmates had not asked for a retrial, extraordinary appeal or constitutional interpretation of their cases, which were reviewed carefully by the MOJ. He did not respond to Lim’s allegations.
Also See: Visiting lawmakers lament Friday’s four executions
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
MORE DEMOCRACY: The only solution to Taiwan’s current democratic issues involves more democracy, including Constitutional Court rulings and citizens exercising their civil rights , Lai said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is not the “motherland” of the Republic of China (ROC) and has never owned Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. The speech was the third in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to deliver across Taiwan. Taiwan is facing external threats from China, Lai said at a Lions Clubs International banquet in Hsinchu. For example, on June 21 the army detected 12 Chinese aircraft, eight of which entered Taiwanese waters, as well as six Chinese warships that remained in the waters around Taiwan, he said. Beyond military and political intimidation, Taiwan