In a final decision yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that former death row inmate Hsu Tzu-chiang (徐自強) was not guilty of the 1995 kidnap and murder of a businessman, rejecting an appeal by prosecutors to end a case that has bounced around the court system for more than two decades and become one of the nation’s highest-profile human rights cases.
Prosecutors had appealed a High Court decision last year to overturn Hsu’s guilty verdict.
Accompanied by lawyers and supporters, Hsu fought back tears at a news conference in Taipei yesterday afternoon.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“When I heard the ruling, it felt unreal to me; maybe I had heard it wrong,” Hsu said. “My mother will celebrate her birthday soon, and this will be the best gift she could get, because over the past 21 years, she has suffered the most.”
“I wanted to give up this fight, as I had given up on the justice system, but my family and my lawyers persisted; they did not want to give up,” Hsu said. “Some people asked if I had bad fortune, but I do not think so, because I feel lucky to be able to walk out of prison.”
Hsu was originally convicted of the September 1995 kidnap and murder of Huang Chun-shu (黃春樹), whose kidnappers sought a ransom of NT$70 million (US$2.2 million at current exchange rates).
Two men, Huang Chun-chi (黃春棋) and Chen Yi-lung (陳憶隆), who were convicted as being the main perpetrators and sentenced to death, had claimed in their trials that Hsu was an accomplice.
Hsu’s saga saw him handed the death sentence nine times and a term of life imprisonment twice, while there were five extraordinary appeals.
He was incarcerated for 16 years, spending most of the time on death row, before being released on May 19, 2012.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
Four former Hong Kong opposition lawmakers jailed in the territory’s largest national security case were released yesterday after more than four years in prison, the first among dozens convicted last year to regain their freedom. Former legislators Claudia Mo (毛孟靜), Jeremy Tam (譚文豪), Kwok Ka-ki (郭家麒) and Gary Fan (范國威) were part of a group of 47 public figures — including some of Hong Kong’s best-known democracy advocates — who were charged with subversion in 2021 for holding an informal primary election. The case fell under a National Security Law imposed on the territory by Beijng, and drew international condemnation and warnings
RSS