The State Public Prosecutor General's refusal to make an extraordinary appeal for death row inmate Hsu Tzu-chiang (
Hsu's distraught family and the Judicial Reform Foundation (民間司法改革基金會) held a quiet demonstration in front of the Supreme Court Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Justice. They condemned the State Public Prosecutor General Lu Jen-fa (盧仁發) for treating human life with indifference.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
On Thursday, Lu dismissed the foundation's petition asking him to make an extraordinary appeal for Hsu. The petition cited a Control Yuan investigation report released in January that concluded Hsu's conviction was flawed and unlawful. In the report the Control Yuan also suggested the State Public Prosecutor General make the extraordinary appeal.
In his document replying to the petition Lu only said that after a reexamination "there was no reason to make an extraordinary appeal, [as] the office has already sent several appeals for Hsu Tzu-chiang." There was no further explanation.
Lu dismissed Hsu's petition for an extraordinary appeal twice last May, after the conviction was confirmed by the Supreme Court on April 27 last year.
Lawyer Joseph Lin (
"The Control Yuan has investigated the case and listed seven problems with the conviction. How could there be no reason for an extraordinary appeal? Lu didn't even have to give a reason for his decision," Lin said.
"The DPP government says it advocates human rights. A State Public Prosecutor General neglecting human rights like this must be stopped! Why does Chen Ding-nan [陳定南, Minister of Justice] lack the boldness to replace him?"
In front of the Ministry of Justice yesterday, Hsu's mother Chen Hsiu-chin (
"He turned himself in to clear his name! Why would he have turned himself in if he had committed the crime?" Chen said in tears. She and other family members and relatives of Hsu held banners demanding justice.
Hsu was indicted and prosecuted for the Sept. 1, 1995 kidnapping and murder of Huang Chun-shu (
Last May, Chen Yi-lung wrote a confession admitting that he had deliberately incriminated Hsu because he had a grudge against him and hoped to delay the trial.
Hsu's family also complained that Hsu had an alibi which the court failed to acknowledge. The Control Yuan report made the same comment.
The spokesman for the Supreme Court Prosecutor's Office, Yang Shih-Chih (楊世治), said all cases are dealt with in accordance with the law.
Hsu's family and the foundation continued the fight for his life yesterday by submitting a fourth petition for an extraordinary appeal and calling on the minister of justice to halt the execution.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS