New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) yesterday unveiled a draft bill on the investigation of controversial cases, that would provide for compensating the family members of military personnel that have suffered ill-treatment.
The bill proposes establishing a committee under the purview of the Executive Yuan to investigate legal cases initiated after conscripts were killed, reported missing or developed unexpected mental illnesses or disabilities that could have been unfairly tried, Hung said at a news conference.
Although the military tribunal was abolished in 2013 after army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) died, his older sister Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) said, the truth behind many cases has yet to be uncovered and the families of many victims have not even received a proper apology for their losses due to the authoritarian and oppressive atmosphere that permeates the military.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Hung Chung-chiu was found dead in 2013 after allegedly being subjected to excessive physical punishment at the 269th Army Brigade for bringing a camera phone to his unit. His death, coupled with missing closed-circuit TV footage from a cell he was put in and the Ministry of Defense’s failure to give a convincing account of the case, triggered a massive uproar that saw hundreds of thousands take to Ketagalan Boulevard to demand truth and justice.
The proposal said that the committee would be an independent agency entitled with the right to investigate cases, and with the scope of its investigations focusing on cases that occurred before the military tribunal underwent reform in 1999 and “suspicious” cases that were closed by the military tribunal before its abolition, even if the cases have exceeded the time limit in which legal proceedings can be initiated.
The committee would also be responsible for reviewing possible cases of injustice in the military, including how they were adjudicated on and what legal action was taken, as well as receiving requests to investigate such cases, it said.
The committee would ask the Executive Yuan to issue an apology to family members of conscripts who had suffered from injustice to restore their reputation, the draft said.
Lawyer Hu Po-yen (胡博硯) said that the bill was drafted using the February 28 Incident Disposition and Compensation Act (二二八事件處理及賠償條例) as a reference.
He said that due to a lack of proper legal channels for people to file charges against possible perpetrators of mistreatment in the military, people affected often did not know how to exercise their rights.
Once the committee deems that a case has been inappropriately handled, it would forward the case to relevant investigative agencies, help family members apply for compensations and file extraordinary appeals if the need arises.
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