Anti-death penalty advocacy groups including Amnesty International and the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty yesterday accused the government of failing to act to abolish capital punishment in accordance with two international human rights covenants ratified by the government, adding that countries that retained the death penalty were increasingly isolated.
“The death penalty is not a way to maintain ‘justice,’” Lin Shu-ya (林淑雅), a board member of Amnesty International Taiwan, told a press conference in Taipei after the organization published its Death Penalty in 2010 report, an annual report on executions, abolitions and moratoriums on capital punishment around the world released by all of Amnesty International’s chapters at the same time.
“The death penalty is not a way to maintain justice, because despite legal requirements to do so, many defendants are not given proper legal assistance and judges, in many cases, do not consider defendants innocent until they are proven guilty,” Lin said. “What happened to Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶) was a perfect example.”
An air force serviceman, Chiang was accused of having sexually assaulted and murdered a young girl at an air force base in Taipei in 1996 and he was executed the following year. An investigation concluded in January determined that Chiang did not commit the crime and that he had admitted to it after being physically tortured and verbally threatened at the hands of his superiors.
It was also discovered that some of the evidence that could have helped prove Chiang’s innocence was ignored during his trial.
Taiwan had a four-year de facto moratorium on the death penalty prior to four executions that were carried out last year, followed by five more this month.
Amnesty International Taiwan deputy director Yang Tsung-li (楊宗澧) said that since Taiwan has ratified the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and adopted legislation to grant the two international covenants the status of domestic laws, it should abide by them and take steps to suspend executions.
Deputy convener of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP) Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠) called the executions illegal “since the executed prisoners acted according to the covenants and applied for amnesty, but Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) signed execution orders before President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had been able to react to the applications.”
“TAEDP requested a constitutional interpretation on behalf of some of the prisoners on death row to determine whether the death penalty is unconstitutional,” Kao said. “The Council of Grand Justices declined to hear the case ... They have become a laughing stock the world over.”
The report said that 139 countries had abolished the death penalty, either in law or in practice.
“Countries that continue to use the death penalty are being left increasingly isolated following a decade of progress toward abolition,” the report said.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
RSS