Taking the case of the Hsichih Trio (
Activists also highlighted what they said was the robbery of the mens' youth and basic human rights.
"We never considered riding the MRT as a basic human right until we considered the rights that the three men have been deprived of for the past nine years," said one campaigner.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
A group of some 30 campaigners, clutching life-sized placards of the trio, yesterday rode the MRT from the SOGO department store on Taipei's Chunghsiao Road to the Hsimenting stop, to highlight not only the trio's loss of their youth, but their having missed out on the rapid changes that have taken place in Taipei during their nine years behind bars.
"We wish they were here to enjoy the many convenient facilities here in Taipei," said one of the group.
Writer Chang Chuan-fen (
"What we have experienced and enjoyed over the past nine years is exactly what the three have been deprived of," Chang said.
The sight of the three large cut-out placards of the men standing on the MRT platform appeared to surprise and interest some passengers, but most people passed by without paying the pictures any attention.
Appealing to what she said was passengers' indifference, Chang Hsiao-hung (
"If others' human rights are not protected, my own are also at risk," said Chang, appealing to passengers to understand the case in light of the collective interest in human rights.
The Hsichih Trio case is regarded as an index of Taiwan's respect for human rights by international human rights organizations.
The three young men -- Su Jian-he (
Prosecutors relied on confessions extracted from the young men under dubious conditions. The men later retracted their statements, claiming they had been tortured.
The controversy over the Hsichih Trio has revolved around the fact that there was no physical evidence pointing to their involvement -- but neither was there evidence to prove their innocence.
Chang said that such logic was unsound, and that the judicial system, in the absence of certainty, should err on the side of caution.
"We'd rather release criminals than kill the innocent," Chang said. "Wrongful release can be corrected, should new incriminating evidence come to light."
"However, the dead cannot be brought back to life after we have killed the innocent," Chang said.
The trio were apprehended when they were all 19 years of age. Su was helping his father to tend their cafeteria business at the time, while Chuang was working as a delivery man for an express delivery company.
Liu had just graduated from Cheng Kung Senior High School, and was preparing to sit the joint university entrance examination.
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