The head of Taiwan High Court’s Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said his office would, for a second time, ask the Taiwan District Prosecutors’ Office to look into the roles ex-minister of national defense Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏) and five military officers played in the wrongful execution of an air force private for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl 15 years ago.
The district prosecutors’ office in May last year announced that Chen and the other officials bore no criminal responsibility for the wrongful execution of Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶). After the high court’s prosecutors in July last year referred the case to the district prosecutors’ office for investigation, the district prosecutors decided in August against criminally charging Chen and the other officials over the execution.
After Chiang’s mother, Wang Tsai-lien (王彩蓮), appealed again to the high court, the head of Taiwan High Court’s Prosecutors’ Office, Yen Da-ho (顏大和), yesterday said his office would return the case to the Taiwan District Prosecutors’ Office for a new round of investigation this week.
The high court prosecutors’ office said it would order district prosecutors to probe whether Chen and five officers violated Article 302 of the Criminal Code: illegal detention resulting in homicide; and Article 125: abuse of prosecutorial authority resulting in homicide.
Wang and human rights groups have been organized a number of petitions calling for Chen and other military officials to shoulder responsibility for the execution.
Chiang was convicted of raping and killing a five-year-old girl at the Air Force Combat Command in Taipei in 1996 and was executed a year later at the age of 21. Chen was the chief of Air Force Combat Command at the time of the investigation.
In September 2010, Chiang’s conviction and execution were ruled to have rested on a coerced confession extracted by torture.
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