Seven military personnel are being targeted for involvement in the torture of soldiers arrested last year in an ammunition and rifle theft case at a Taoyuan air base, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
The seven suspects include six mid-ranked officers and a civilian employee at the Taoyuan air base, said Colonel Li Jung-juan (
Two of the suspects were detained last Tuesday, while the rest have been summoned for questioning by military prosecutors, Li said.
He also said that three of the suspects did not attend the questioning sessions and he warned that if they fail to answer the summons once again, they will be put on the wanted list.
Li said the seven were accused of torturing three soldiers at the Taoyuan air base in an attempt to extract confessions from them regarding their roles in a series of thefts, which took place between October and February of last year.
"We have not found any direct evidence against the seven. All we have right now are fragmentary memories from the three soldiers about what happened to them during the interrogation. The soldiers did not know who beat them since they were blind-folded throughout the process," Li said during a weekly defense ministry press conference yesterday.
Additionally Li conceded that there may have been pressure from the authorities to clear the case up quickly and this could have led to the extreme measures that were taken.
"We will be looking into this matter as well. We will try to find out whether the top brass should take some of the responsibility for the actions of the seven," Li said.
"We also need to review the current practice of assigning intelligence officers from the political warfare system [of the armed forces] to question soldiers detained for criminal behavior," he said.
Most of the military personnel allegedly involved in the torture incident are from the anti-infiltration units of the political warfare system, whose job is to maintain security in the military.
Some of the suspects are also said to have been involved in the interrogation of an airman several years ago, over his alleged rape and murder of a teenage girl at air force general headquarters.
Li declined to comment on the possibility that the airman might have been tortured during interrogation. The airman was convicted and executed.
Meanwhile, the defense ministry also announced military prosecutors in Penghu have formally filed charges after weeks of investigation against two reservists, for having allegedly incited other reservists to stage a group protest against military authorities while participating in a five-day exercise on the offshore island in April.
It was the first time in recent years that the military has taken legal action against civilians with reservist status for their behavior in recalls.
Ten army officials, including three generals, were disciplined for having failed to properly handle the incident, which resulted in a chain reaction of disobedience among other reservists around the island who had been called up for exercises and training.
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