The Constitutional Court yesterday ruled that imposing a life sentence or the death penalty for people convicted of selling narcotics is partly unconstitutional.
The authorities have to implement legal amendments within two years to reflect the ruling.
The court reviewed Constitutional Interpretation No. 476 based on 54 complaints stating that Article 4 of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防治條例) only offered polarizing choices and gave judges very little room to adjudicate, potentially contravening articles 7, 8 and 23 of the Constitution.
Photo: Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Article 4 states that offenders who manufacture, transport or sell Category 1 narcotics are subject to a death sentence or life imprisonment, and may also be fined up to NT$30 million (US$943,456).
As defined by the act, Category 1 narcotics include morphine, cocaine, heroin, opium and their derivative products.
The intent of lawmakers to use life sentences to deter narcotics trafficking and use is evident, but the law fails to consider situations in which the accused is not guilty of other legal contraventions, the offense was minor or the case merits clemency, the judges said in their ruling.
Even if judges invoke Article 59 of the Criminal Code to reduce a defendant’s sentence, the crime would not merit such a heavy sentence, the ruling said.
Article 4 of the act risks being too rigid and inflexible, and the authorities should review the legal sentences that would be appropriate if the crime does not befit the sentence.
The ruling suggested that the authorities introduce fixed-term imprisonment as an alternative ruling or base the prison terms on the amount of narcotics sold and how many times the defendant has been accused of selling the product.
Starting from the day of the ruling until the legal amendments have been completed, any ruling regarding the trafficking of Category 1 narcotics should not only invoke Article 59 of the Criminal Code, but also reduce the already-reduced sentence by half, the court said.
Five of the petitions had been filed by narcotics traffickers and they can demand that the prosecutor general file a petition for an extraordinary appeal, the court said.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang