Su Chien-ho (蘇建和), one of the Hsichih Trio, on death row for the murder of a couple in 1991, was granted leave by the Ministry of Justice to visit his father Su Chuen-chang (蘇春長) who was on the danger list in National Taiwan University Hospital yesterday.
Human rights activists have long claimed that the Trio's conviction was a miscarriage of justice.
With his face streaked with tears, Su Chien-ho knelt by his fathers bedside.
"Dad, you educated me well. I am not a bad boy," he said.
"You must survive for me and await for me to depart from jail innocent. We can grow vegetables in the backyard and rebuild our broken family," he said.
The elder Su was also in tears as he lay on the bed with various tubes in his body.
Unable to speak because of a respiratory tube in his mouth, he lifted his right hand to make an "okay" gesture instead to comfort his son.
As Su Chien-ho walked out of his father's ward, he cried: "I'm innocent. Please let me out to take care of my father," he cried.
The elder Su, who is 53, was sent to the intensive care unit due to extensive blood clots in his lung four days ago. He was diagnosed with bronchial cancer in 1998. The hospital issued a danger notification to his family on Thursday.
The Trio's defense counsels, Su Yue-chen (蘇友辰) and Hsu Wen-bin (許文彬), requested in accordance with legal procedures that the Ministry of Justice allow Su Chien-ho to see his father. The ministry approved their request based on humanitarian considerations yesterday afternoon.
The father and son meeting lasted only 15 minutes and Su Chien-ho was then taken away under escort from the hospital.
The law requires that he return to the detention house within 24 hours of his leave.
It was the first meeting between father and son anywhere other than jail and court since Su Chien-ho, along with Liu Bin-lang (
Chen Chu (
The case of Su and the other two of the so-called Hsichih Trio has been one of Taiwan's best-known and most controversial due to the weak evidence on which their conviction was secured.
Without direct evidence against them, the three men were convicted of murder and sentenced to death on the basis of confessions allegedly extracted through torture by police.
Former state prosecutor-general Chen Han (
To prove his son's innocence, Su's father never gave up hope and insisted on campaigning for the release of the Trio even when he was seriously ill.
On Sept. 29, despite his critical condition, the 50-year-old man insisted on attending a press conference for a new book about the case that was being launched.
RSS