The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday launched an investigation into a missing section of surveillance video that may have offered insights into the recent death of army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘).
According to chief military prosecutor Major-General Tsao Chin-sheng (曹金生), a key 80-minute portion of footage from cameras monitoring an area of a military detention barracks where the 23-year-old Hung was forced to perform strenuous exercises as part of his punishment, was blank because all 16 cameras had stopped working.
Hung’s family and others have suggested that foul play may be behind the missing footage, which covered 2pm to 3:20pm on July 1.
The Ministry of National Defense said on Saturday that manipulation of evidence is a criminal offense, adding that it agreed that the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office should look into the matter.
The deputy chief of the Taiwan High Court’s Prosecutors’ Office, Kao Wen-tung (郭文東), Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Dai Wen-liang (戴文亮) and three other prosecutors yesterday morning met Tsao at the Military High Court’s Prosecutors’ Office.
After a two-hour meeting, Kao said that prosecutors had been allowed to take away a box of material evidence for their investigation, adding that the military had promised to cooperate with their probe.
Dai later said Taoyuan district prosecutors had gained access to the 269th Brigade’s base in Taoyuan to inspect the confinement facilities where Hung was detained.
Investigators inspected the detention barracks’ surveillance facilities and sketched the area’s layout.
Dai also said his office had received a document from the Military High Court’s Prosecutors’ Office on Saturday requesting it be involved in any investigation into the missing portion of surveillance video.
He added that his office had concluded that if Colonel Chen Yi-ming (陳毅銘), director of the 269th Brigade’s Political Warfare Office, had ordered the destruction of the 80-minute recording, then he would have committed a criminal offense.
Chen yesterday said he would fully cooperate with the probe, stating that he believed the investigation would prove his innocence.
Hung’s sister, Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸), said the military’s assertion that all 16 surveillance cameras had stopping working simultaneously treated her family like idiots.
Hung’s family also issued a statement yesterday, saying they do not trust military prosecutors to handle the case independently and hoping Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) will demonstrate his regret over the case by ordering civil prosecutors to take charge of the investigation.
The statement added that Deputy Minister of National Defense Andrew Yang (楊念祖) had promised attendees at a rally in Taipei on Saturday that military and civil prosecutors would jointly investigate the case.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) also said during his visit to Hung’s family on Saturday that he would do his best to meet the family’s requests for an independent investigation.
However, Hung’s family said the defense ministry had confirmed late on Saturday night that the case would continue to be handled by the military.
“There have been so many high-ranking officials offering apologies and promises, but we want an investigation we can trust rather than their beautiful words,” the family said in the statement.
Hung collapsed from heatstroke after drilling on July 3 and died in hospital a day later, just three days before he was due to be discharged at the end of his year’s compulsory military service.
Tens of thousands protesters demonstrated in front of the ministry in Taipei on Saturday, demanding that the military reveal the truth about Hung’s death and bring the perpetrators to justice.
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
RSS