The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday proposed an amendment to Article 9 of the National Security Act (國家安全法), which seeks to grant people convicted in Martial Law era courts the right to request a retrial or file an extraordinary appeal.
Unless certain conditions are met, current regulations deny people convicted by a military court over national security issues the right to appeal or request a retrial, which deprives people who might have been persecuted or wrongly convicted of the right to restore their reputation and demand accountability for the government’s abuse of power, the NPP said.
Those conditions include scenarios where new evidence is presented by defendants — which would allow them to request a retrial — and when a legal interpretation is required because different courts handed down conflicting rulings — which demands an extraordinary appeal, NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
These restrictions are outdated and unconstitutional, hampering efforts to promote transitional justice, Huang said.
During the Martial Law era, the government controlled all information making it difficult for some people to prove their innocence, he said.
If passed, the amendment would grant defendants the right to directly ask high courts — which have now taken over cases adjudicated by military courts — for a retrial within five years of its ratification, according to the NPP draft amendment.
The proposal seeks to establish dedicated tribunals at the Supreme Court and high courts, with the Supreme Court in charge of handling appeals of high-court rulings.
Huang asked why Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers have not put a transitional justice promotion bill on the legislative agenda, after a legislative review was completed in the plenary session in June.
Saying that transitional justice is a value touted by the DPP administration, Huang asked what the DPP’s motives and concerns were behind its apparent inaction over the bill.
Netflix on Wednesday said it is to charge NT$100 more per month for each user that is not part of the same household. Under the plan, the streaming service is to limit viewership to people who live in the same household. If a member wishes to add people outside of their address, they must pay NT$100 more per person every month. No additional viewers can be added to the NT$270 per month “basic” account. “Standard” accounts (NT$330) can add one user, while “premium” (NT$390) accounts can add two users. The company has said that people in the same household would still be able
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan