The Ministry of Justice plans to introduce a "conditional moratorium" on the death penalty as part of its preparations for abolishing the punishment entirely, according to a newspaper report.
The United Daily News quoted Minister of Justice Morley Shih (施茂林) as saying that the ministry is studying the possibility of following China's example of issuing a "death penalty with two years' suspension" to give criminals a chance to repent.
"In 1979, China introduced the `death penalty with two years' suspension.' If the convicts behaved well during the two years, their death sentence could be changed to a life sentence and later changed to shorter jail terms," the paper quoted Shih as saying.
"We have asked academics and experts to study the possibility of introducing a `death penalty with two years' suspension' to prepare for the eventual abolition of the death penalty," he said.
But the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty blasted the ministry's plan, saying it contradicts President Chen Shui-bian's (
"Under the measure of `death penalty with two years,' only those who have behaved well are eligible for having their death penalty converted to a life sentence. We demand a moratorium on all executions and the eventual abolition of the death penalty," one alliance member said.
Although Taiwan still hands down the death penalty, very few executions are carried out. The number of executions has dropped from 32 in 1998 to 17 in 2000 and three in 2005. There are about 70 prisoners currently awaiting execution.
Recent polling suggests that 80 percent of people oppose abolishing the death policy, but 40 percent would accept this if jail terms for criminals were toughened and conditions for parole tightened.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
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