A military court yesterday denied reports that former defense minister Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏) would pay the highest stipulated amount of compensation for his alleged role in the wrongful execution of a soldier.
The Northern Military District Court said such were “purely speculation” and “far from true.”
The court said that as the documents and number of people involved in the case are numerous, a committee has notified officers who may be required to pay compensation to state their views. The court has also requested that representatives of related agencies provide any details that may shed light on the case.
“The committee has convened nine review meetings, but has yet to make any decisions,” the court said.
After awarding NT$103 million (US$3.49 million) in October last year in compensation to Wang Tsai-lien (王彩蓮), the mother of Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶), an air force serviceman who was wrongfully executed for rape and murder, the military court sought to freeze the assets of eight former military officers, including Chen, who was air force chief at the time of the investigation, who were allegedly involved in the case.
The military court filed for an injunction on Nov. 29 at the Taipei District Court for their assets to be frozen to prevent the possibility of the officers hiding them to avoid paying compensation if they were later required to do so.
Chiang was accused of raping and killing a five-year-old girl at the Air Force Command in Taipei in 1995. He was found to have been tortured and coerced into confessing to air force counterintelligence officers and was later convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed a year later at the age of 21.
Chiang was acquitted of the charges by a military court in a posthumous retrial in September last year, with the court ruling that his confession was not given freely and therefore was not admissible.
Another former air force serviceman, Hsu Jung-chou (許榮洲), was arrested earlier last year and confessed to the crime. Prosecutors in May indicted him on homicide charges and sought a 20-year jail term.
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