The retrial of the high-profile Hsichih Trio case will be made as transparent as possible, with a television to be set up outside the courtroom to simultaneously air the proceedings.
The retrial, which took the three death row inmates over five years to get, will start at 9:30am on Nov. 16 at the Taiwan High Court.
Considering the enormous public concern over the trial, the high court has planned to set up a television outside the courtroom which will broadcast live the proceedings inside to people outside the courtroom. According to the trial judges, it is expected the retrial will attract a large crowd to the courtroom.
To prevent overcrowding, the court decided to broadcast the proceedings via the television outside, for those who cannot get in the courtroom.
The court also will not stop television networks from broadcasting the trial live to the nation.
The trial by the High Court is to re-examine an appeal against a 1992 conviction of the three men by the Shihlin District Court. It will be presided over by a three-judge panel, one of which is Chiang Kuo-hua (
In fact, during his tenure at courts in Kaohsiung, Chiang permitted trials to be broadcast on a television when he tried cases of violations of the Law of Assembly, which often attracted a large crowd of people to the court.
However, it is still rare for proceedings inside Taiwan's courtrooms to be broadcast live, despite a growing demand.
The three inmates -- Su Chien-ho (
Though without direct evidence against them, the three men were found guilty and were put on death row in February 1995. Following that, a campaign was launched by local and international human rights activists for a review of the case.
Between February and July 1995, then state prosecutor-general Chen Han (
Chiang's decision to grant the retrial in May had been challenged by state prosecutors, which filed an appeal on behalf of the murdered couple's family. The Supreme Court, however, overruled the appeal and confirmed Chiang's decision in late October.
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