While the prospect of new evidence has rekindled the public's interest in the unsolved 1993 murder of navy Captain Yin Ching-feng (
"As far as my former task force colleagues and I understand of Kuo [Li-heng] (
"It is possible that Kuo may try to mislead the investigation into the case. So we have to be very careful. No judgment can be passed on anybody before enough evidence is collected against that person."
Yang told the Taipei Times that what ex-naval Captain Kuo, one of the key witnesses to the murder, had recently said about the yet-to-be-solved case cannot be totally trusted. Yang was the former head of a police task force specially formed to probe into the case.
"There are a number of key witnesses to the murder, including some who have fled abroad. We cannot say which witness is most vital to help us solve the case. We just have to piece together all the evidence discovered from each of them," Yang said. "The pity is that a lot of clues cannot be ascertained until we locate the suspects still hiding abroad."
Kuo was arrested as a suspect shortly after the Yin murder on Dec 9, 1993. Months later, he was sentenced to life in prison on a separate charge -- taking bribes from an arms broker lobbying for a weapons purchase case handled by Yin.
Kuo was Yin's colleague at the weapons procurement department at the navy's general headquarters. Yin was the executive officer of the department.
Kuo, held in a Taipei military jail for the past five years, is believed by investigators to know who murdered Ying as well as the military purchase scandals behind the murder.
Until now, Kuo has remained silent.
He broke his silence recently after Yin's widow, Li Mei-kuei (
The confession he made to the two last week was made public shortly afterwards by Lee.
Kuo has alleged that many political dignitaries and military leaders are either connected to the weapons purchase scandal behind the Yin murder, or have knowledge about who murdered Yin.
The names given by Kuo included former President Lee Teng-hui's (
Meanwhile, Yin's widow called on the military to provide to civil prosecutors handling the Yin murder an original copy of the tape recording of the conversation between her and Kuo during her recent visit to him at the jail.
However, Li says that she is not completely sure that the tape will be a clear reflection of what was said by Kuo since she feels that parts of the recording may have been altered.
"It is my understanding that the original tape recording of the conversation appears to have been tampered with to the extent that a considerable portion of the conversation could not be heard clearly," Li told the Taipei Times.
For this, Lee strongly criticized the military and told them to step in line and follow President Chen Shui-bian's (
"Even if the military had a hand in covering up any evidence or tampering with the recordings, we still have the notes we took at the time we met with Kuo to rely on.
"What lawmaker Lee made public of Kuo's confession is only part of the story. We will not consider going public with the rest of it until the prosecutors have access to the tape," Li said.
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