Judicial reform activists yesterday named 47 people they believe should be held accountable for the miscarriage of justice in the Su Pin-kun (
Su was convicted for a 1986 robbery and attempted murder. The amnesty granted by President Chen Shui-bian (
But the Judicial Reform Foundation (民間司法改革基金會) argued at a press conference yesterday that the amnesty granted Su should not be the end of the matter. Su himself, who was present, accused the police of torturing him.
"Should 15 years of suffering be brushed aside as if it never happened?" attorney Karl Tzan (詹文凱) asked. "It is regrettable that no one has apologized for the miscarriage of justice and that no government body has sought to hold accountable the officials responsible for causing it.
"If so, society will continue to be unable to examine itself," Tzan said.
The foundation named four police officers, one district prosecutor, 15 High Court and 27 Supreme Court judges -- a total of 47 people involved at different stages of the criminal proceedings -- as being responsible for the miscarriage of justice.
The High Court prosecution had petitioned four times for a retrial and two successive state public prosecutors-general made four extraordinary appeals for Su, but all the moves were dismissed.
"There were so many obvious flaws in the case. But what was the judiciary doing?" attorney Joseph Lin (
"But if the system resists change there will still be many people who need amnesties," Lin said.
The foundation demanded that the police, the Ministry of Justice and the Judicial Yuan publicly apologize to Su and his family as well as compensate him for his suffering and losses over the past 15 years.
The foundation also said in its published statement that the Judicial Yuan, the justice ministry and the Control Yuan must investigate the negligence of judges, prosecutors and police officers.
The Control Yuan has conducted five investigative reports into the Su case, and although all the reports indicated there had been flaws in the criminal proceedings, none went as far as to call for the impeachment of officials, Control Yuan member Frank Liao (廖健男), who worked on the fifth investigation last year, told the Taipei Times yesterday.
But he said he was now at the stage of collecting materials in preparation to investigate whether police officers in the Su case had tortured Su.
"In such miscarriages of justice, [a forced confession via] torture often lies at the root of the problem ..." Liao said, "and we want a total eradication of such practices."
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