Witnesses likely to serve out terms

The introduction of an alternative National Service program in August has proved popular with Jehovah's Witnesses, with 27 having already applied for the program.

However, the new program, which allows some recruits to avoid military service and choose between service in policing, social work, firefighting, or environmental protection has not rescued 16 Jehovah's Witnesses already in jail for dodging their compulsory service.

For those Witnesses due to enlist, the alternative program allows them to adhere to their religious beliefs without breaking the law.

But, according to officials at the Ministry of the Interior, there is little hope of release for those already in jail, with their cases not likely to be reviewed retrospectively.

Prior to the Military Service Law (兵役法) being amended in January of this year, Witnesses had been caught in a legal loophole, in which they had been jailed, released, reinducted, and eventually returned to jail.

The 16 Witnesses currently in jail are the last group paying the price for refusing to serve.

The government claims it has no intention of keeping the 16 Witnesses in prison. However it claims its hands are tied as there is no legal process to exempt them from their convictions.

"Hopefully, the 27 Witnesses who have applied will soon be allowed to do their alternative service. But I'm afraid the 16, who are now still serving their terms, might not have the same kind of luck," said Chung Tai-li (鍾台利), director of the MOI's department of conscription. "We've tried our best to help, but there seems little hope we could find a solution within the existing legal framework."

Internationally, there are examples of exempting conscientious objectors. Following WW II, many Western European countries passed laws to allow conscientious objectors to fulfill non-combative alternative service. Anyone opposed to war on religious or personal grounds was exempted from military service.

When rewriting laws related to military service, most countries thought to incorporate into their alternative service laws articles that specify resolutions to the convicted and jailed conscientious objectors.

Italy's social service law, for instance, specifies that conscientious objectors, once their application for non-combative service has been accepted, are exempt from any criminal penalties previously imposed on them for their refusal to serve.

Taiwan did not adopt such a measure when the legislature passed the Alternative Service Law earlier this year.

Of the 16 Witnesses inmates, six have served jail terms of more than three years and the Ministry of National Defense (MND) in accordance with new amendments to the Military Service Law, has exempted them permanently from military service.

However, their convictions and jail sentences were not wiped from the record once they were deemed exempt from compulsory service. They still have to remain behind bars until their jail terms are complete.

Meanwhile, the other 10, all sentenced to less than three years, are ineligible for the exemption and will still have to complete alternative service once they are released.

Colonel Michael Chi (紀式勉), an official of the MND, made it clear there is little hope for the 16 Witnesses inmates to be released anytime soon.

"Exempting them from the compulsory service is one thing, but exempting them from criminal liabilities is another. Let's not confuse the power of the judiciary and that of the executive," Chi said. "As an executive organ, the defense ministry has taken measures within its discretion to exempt those people from combative service. But there is no way for us to reverse decisions the judiciary has made."