The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s guilty verdict against six military officials in the wrongful conviction and execution of Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶) in 1997, requiring them to pay NT$59.57 million (US$1.97 million) in financial compensation.
The defendants included former minister of defense Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏) and former counterintelligence officer Ko Chung-ching (柯仲慶).
While fulfilling his military service, Chiang was in 1996 accused of raping and murdering a five-year-old girl at the Air Force Command headquarters, convicted by a military court and put to death the next year. Chiang was 21 at the time of his execution.
It was later found that evidence against Chiang had been lacking, but military investigators had used illegal means and tortured him to extract the signed confession that resulted in his wrongful conviction.
Chiang was exonerated in a posthumous trial in September 2011 at the Military Northern District Court, while a man surnamed Hsu (許) with a prior criminal record was charged with the crime.
In exonerating Chiang the military court ruled that the six military officials who handled the case should pay Chiang’s family NT$103.18 million.
In addition, the Ministry of National Defense later filed a civil lawsuit against the six military officials, requesting NT$88.44 million in compensation.
The Taipei District Court in its first ruling found the defendants guilty, ordering that the officials pay the defense ministry NT$59.57 million.
Yesterday’s High Court decision upheld the district court’s first ruling, but can still be appealed.
Chen had the rank of general and was the chief of the Air Force Command at the time of Chiang’s conviction. After the incident, Chen rose through the ranks to take up the position of defense minister from 2008 to 2009.
Chen and Ko Chung-ching are widely seen as the two men most responsible for the wrongful conviction, as Chen instructed Ko, a high-ranking air force counterintelligence officer, to lead the investigation.
The two men were ordered to each pay NT$14.74 million in compensation, the highest among the six defendants.
The other defendants found guilty and ordered to pay compensation are former Air Force Command legal department director Tsao Chia-sheng (曹嘉生), former military prosecutor Huang Jui-peng (黃瑞鵬), and former air force counterintelligence officers Ho Tsu-yao (何祖耀) and Lee Chih-jen (李植仁).
The High Court decision said that Chen had arranged for Ko and other counterintelligence officers to take charge of the case, despite the officers not having the legal authority to act as military investigators.
The verdict also cited the officers’ use of torture and other illegal methods to extract a confession from Chiang.
The defendants acted against the Code of Court Martial Procedure (軍事審判法) and other laws, and as military personnel guilty of gross misconduct, they should be held responsible for the wrongful conviction and execution of Chiang, and should pay compensation, the court statement read.
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