The Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation yesterday questioned the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office’s reinvestigation into the murder of the family members of former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) and urged the office to publicize all original records of investigations relevant to the case.
At a public hearing at the legislature, Wu Nai-teh (吳乃德), a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at Academia Sinica and president of the association, said members of the organization were deeply disappointed when reading through the office’s report on the reinvestigation into the case.
“[The report] not only failed to clarify any suspicious points [of the case] but also failed to elaborate on some major questions that might help solve the case,” Wu said.
“The report reinforces the public’s [negative] impression of the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] and regrettably fails to help the politically polarized nation move toward reconciliation,” Wu said.
The prosecutors office reopened the Lin family murder case and the probe into the death of Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), a math professor who is believed to have been murdered in March 1981 during the White Terror by the KMT government.
However, after a four-month investigation, prosecutors concluded on July 28 that they were unable to make any breakthrough in the Lin case because they lacked sufficient forensic evidence.
Prosecutors said they also did not find any evidence showing that the former Taiwan Garrison Command had been involved in killing Lin’s mother and twin daughters in 1980.
Wu said if prosecutors could clarify that past intelligence organizations kept the Lin family under 24-hour surveillance, prosecutors could conclude that the murderer was related to the organizations.
The association hoped prosecutors could make public more details of their investigation, including whether they found any documents recording past intelligence agencies’ surveillance of dissidents, Wu said.
An official from the Professor Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation also questioned the prosecutors’ reinvestigation into Chen’s death during the hearing.
Hsieh Ying-ching (謝穎青), a lawyer at the foundation, said the prosecutors’ conclusion still failed to explain if Chen died on the campus of National Taiwan University, where the 31-year-old professor’s body was found, or whether he died elsewhere and the body was moved. Chen’s body was found the day after he was questioned by the Garrison Guard on July 2, 1981.
Prosecutors also failed to find solid evidence to prove that Chen was not drugged or battered before death, Hsieh said.
An autopsy report at the time said judging from Chen’s injuries, he had fallen to his death from either the fourth or fifth floor of a building. However, it is still unclear whether the professor was pushed or committed suicide.
Hsieh urged prosecutors to make public all documented interviews or polygraph tests of witnesses related to Chen’s case.
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