The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday filed a provisional lawsuit with the Taipei District Court asking it to seize the property of former minister of national defense Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏) and seven former military officials to ensure they return NT$103.18 million (US$3.4 million) in compensation that has been paid to the family of an air force serviceman who was wrongly executed 14 years ago for the rape and murder of a young girl.
In a ruling on Oct. 27, the Northern Military District Court awarded this amount in damages to Wang Tsai-lien (王彩蓮), the mother of wrongfully executed air force serviceman Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶).
The ruling said the military court had formed a committee to decide who would be responsible for paying the compensation.
Photo: CNA
After interviewing those involved in the case, five legal experts and four district military court members on the committee determined that Chen, who was then the air force commander, and former air force counterintelligence officials Ko Chung-ching (柯仲慶), Teng Chun-huan (鄧震環), Lee Shu-chiang (李書強) and Ho Tsu-yao (何祖耀), former Air Force Command legal department director Tsao Chia-sheng (曹嘉生), as well as former military prosecutors Chao Tai-shen (趙台生) and Huang Jui-peng (黃瑞鵬), should be responsible for the compensation.
The ministry said to ensure that the compensation would be paid, officials had filed a provisional seizure lawsuit against the eight former officials, asking the district court to seize their properties.
According to Chen’s asset report to the Control Yuan, he owns two property units and one plot of land, has NT$11.38 million in bank deposits, NT$780,000 in jewelry and NT$580,000 in stocks.
In 1996, Chiang was accused of raping and killing a five-year-old girl at Air Force Combat Command in Taipei. He confessed to air force counterintelligence officers that he had committed the crime and was later convicted and sentenced to death. Chiang was executed in 1997 at the age of 21.
However, in a retrial of the case in September this year, the military court acquitted Chiang of the charges, ruling that his confession had been made under duress and was not admissible.
Furthermore, the evidence presented in the case, such as the suspected murder weapon and a tissue stained with the child’s blood, was not conclusive and had not been subject to modern forensic examination, the court ruled.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique