Notorious murderer Chen Chin-hsing (
Since a recent campaign to reopen the case of the Hsichih trio -- believed seriously flawed by human rights violations during the investigation -- the legal community has been debating the validity of the Act for the Control and Punishment of Banditry (懲治盜匪條例), commonly known as the "bandit law" under which the Hsichih trio members Su Chien-ho (
Despite the continuing legal wrangles, however, the Ministry of Justice appears set to use the law to execute Chen, who has been on death row for a series of killings, robberies, and rapes in 1997. Chen's case, the ministry argues, is subject to the same law.
Chen is perhaps best known for the 1997 kidnapping and murder of popular TV entertainer and personality Pai Ping-ping's (白冰冰) 17-year-old daughter Pai Hsiao-yen (白曉燕), and his final standoff later that year with police in the home of the South African military attache.
Having obtained detailed records from the legislature on the process by which the act was passed, the MOJ now looks set to go ahead with the execution.
The Prosecutors' Office for the Supreme Court last week started the final phase of the legal process for requesting an execution: examining previous rulings against Chen and requesting that Minister of Justice Yeh Chin-fong (葉金鳳) sign an execution order.
When questioned about the likelihood of Chen's immediate execution, Yeh said yesterday she has yet to receive the relevant documents and her decision is still pending. But the minister said that the bandit law applies to Chen's case.
Yeh's statement is at odds with statements made by a majority of lawyers and legal scholars. And as the legal debates continue, Yeh has yet to order executions for nine people convicted under the law, including the Hsichih trio.
Chen's execution has been a thorny issue for the MOJ, given the public outrage over Chen's crimes and the controversy surrounding the law.
In August, the Council of Grand Justices, the island's judicial review authority, rejected an appeal for a reinterpretation of the validity of the bandit law, referring disputes over the validity to the legislature.
When the bandit law was promulgated in 1944, it had a "sunset clause" attached which abolished the law after one year unless the legislative renewed it.
Arguably, this was not done in time in 1945 and the law therefore lapsed.
Nevertheless, the legislature -- some claim unconstitutionally -- extended the law annually over the 13 years that followed and finally deleted the sunset clause in 1957, allowing the law to stand in perpetuity.
Legal scholars and lawyers, however, say that on four occasions before 1957, the legislature failed to extend the law as required. They have urged the government to declare the law invalid.
The MOJ requested documents from the legislature to verify the law-making process concerning the act.
Chou Wan-lai (
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
RSS