The Transitional Justice Commission is expected to exonerate 1,505 people who were persecuted during the White Terror era, including former legislator Hsieh Tsung-min (謝聰敏) and Aboriginal rights advocate Uyongu’e Yatauyungana (高一生), who was executed for espionage.
A ceremony is to be held at the Jingmei White Terror Memorial Park in New Taipei City on Dec. 9, the day before World Human Rights Day, the commission said.
On Oct. 5, a ceremony marked 1,270 exonerations, with those people the first to have their names cleared on its authority, commission spokeswoman Yeh Hung-ling (葉虹靈) said on Thursday.
The next round of exonerations is to include people killed in the 228 Incident, people who were wrongly convicted of espionage or sedition during the Martial Law period and others who did not fit into those groups, but are nevertheless verified to have been persecuted, Yeh said.
Most of the 1,505 cases qualify for compensation from the Improper Martial Law Period Insurgency and Espionage Convictions Compensation Foundation, sources said.
In 1964, Hsieh was arrested on suspicion of treason after having drafted the “Declaration of Formosan Self-Salvation” with Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) and Wei Ting-chao (魏廷朝), the commission said.
Hsieh was not executed after author Lei Chen (雷震), human rights attorney Tien Chao-ming (田朝明) and the US embassy petitioned on his behalf, and he played a major role in calling for the rehabilitation of dissidents after martial law ended, it said.
However, Hsieh remained a guilty man in the eyes of the law, a situation that is to be rectified next month, the commission said.
Additionally, the commission is to clear the name of Uyongu’e, who was imprisoned on trumped-up corruption charges and executed in 1954 alongside several others of Aboriginal descent, it said.
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