For almost a decade, the Parents' Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability has advocated measures to give intellectually challenged criminal suspects the services of a lawyer during police questioning and prosecutorial investigations. A press conference held by the Legal Aid Foundation last Monday marked the formal beginning of such a measure.
The services offered by the foundation will now move beyond helping only during court proceedings to providing aid during investigations by police and prosecutors. This means that the foundation will have to handle more administrative contacts and find more compassionate lawyers willing to stand by around the clock.
Given that the foundation does not provide travel subsidies and that its lawyers are paid a mere NT$600 per hour and NT$1,000 during night hours, it is to Taiwan's credit that the foundation has found lawyers willing to do all they can to protect the human rights of those with intellectual disabilities.
The conditions for providing legal assistance in cases involving the intellectually disabled and compulsory defense cases differ. In compulsory defense cases, the lightest punishment for the crime must be a minimum of three years in prison and the defendant must lack financial resources. Intellectually disabled suspects will get assistance regardless of the kind of crime and financial standing.
Paragraph 31 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (
In March this year, however, the procedure was not followed when Chen Jung-chi (陳榮吉) was mistakenly arrested in Chiayi. The Ministry of Justice's response to the foundation's appeal shows that the prosecutor handling the case felt that "the main suspect could express himself clearly and denied involvement" and the condition that he must be "unable to make a complete statement" was therefore not met. Maybe the semantic difference between being "unable to make a complete statement" and being "completely unable to make a statement" was confusing in Chen's case.
Social workers and special education teachers generally believe that being "unable to make a complete statement" can be applied to almost all those with a certified intellectual disability.
If authorities make only a superficial judgement that an intellectually disabled criminal suspect is able to express himself or herself clearly and find his or her answers to be reasonable, then they can conclude that the person is not legally intellectually disabled and that there is therefore no need for a lawyer to be present during the investigation. This situation bodes ill for the human rights of intellectually disabled persons.
The fact is that over the years, police arresting intellectually disabled criminal suspects have had to search the suspect's wallet to find contact information for family members so that they can accompany the suspect.
After Paragraph 31 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was passed last year, prosecutors also set up stricter standards foruse when investigating intellectually disabled suspects. Parents of intellectually disabled around Taiwan are grateful for this. But we also hope that this important human rights progress will give prosecutors and police an even stronger feeling of mission, because when the intellectually disabled are given protection, there is even less risk that others will be bullied.
Sun Yi-hsin is deputy secretary-general of the Parents' Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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