A report highlighting the way unfair trials can lead to the death penalty was released by rights groups in Taipei on Tuesday, as part of an effort to attract attention to their call for the abolition of capital punishment.
The report, jointly released by Amnesty International, the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network -(ADPAN) and the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, detailed eight cases of people on death row in Asia and their struggles to secure a fair trial.
Despite a trend toward the abolition of capital punishment in Asia, 14 countries in the region still retain the death penalty, which carries with it the risk of miscarriage of justice and wrongful execution, said Louise Vischer, an ADPAN coordinator who spent a year compiling the report.
The cases detailed in the report come from Taiwan, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, -Pakistan and Singapore.
Six of the cases involved convictions that relied on confessions extracted through torture, including the case of Taiwanese death row inmate Chiu Ho-shun (邱和順), who has been on trial for nearly 23 years on charges of abducting and murdering a schoolboy in December 1987.
In July, the Supreme Court ended Chiu’s lengthy trial by upholding his death sentence for that crime.
Documented video and audio recordings prove that Chiu was tortured by police during a four-month period of detention to extract a confession from him that was later presented in court as key evidence, according to lawyers familiar with the case.
Catherine Baber, deputy director of Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific program, said no judicial system can exclude the possibility of error.
“If we are to take [action] against the execution of the innocent, the only solution is the abolition of the death penalty,” she said.
Asked how Taiwan could avoid cases like that of Chiu in the future, Vischer said judicial reform is the key.
Judges have to be independent, free from the influence of public opinion and politics she said, adding that concrete material evidence should also be required in any trial.
“Material evidence was lacking in Chiu’s case and it seems to be lacking in many other cases,” Vischer said.
Another issue that needs to be dealt with is coerced confessions, she said, adding that although Taiwan has introduced a law to address that, more work is needed to deal with cases, such as Chiu’s, that happened before the law was passed.
Taiwan ended a more than four-year moratorium on executions when four death row inmates were executed in April last year and another five in March, drawing criticism from the EU and human rights advocates.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it