Independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) yesterday said that he would propose a bill calling for the government to return the confiscated property or financial assets of those convicted of rebellion or sedition during the White Terror and Martial Law eras.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has made progress in implementing transitional justice by passing laws since 2016, but its efforts have yet to address the assets owned by those wrongfully convicted of rebellion or sedition that were confiscated by the government, Lim said.
The core of transitional justice is to “return things to how they were” he said, adding that only the Act Governing the Recovery of Damage of Individual Rights During the Period of Martial Law (戒嚴時期人民受損權利回復條例) mentions returning confiscated assets to their original owners.
Other legislation simply says that the government may compensate the falsely accused individual, or their surviving kin and family, with cash payments, he said.
The act states that the aggrieved party must have had property confiscated because they were convicted of crimes of rebellion or sedition, and they must have been found not guilty, before the government can return their property, he said.
This stipulation has resulted in people who had property or assets confiscated because they were convicted under the Punishment of Rebellion Act (懲治叛亂條例) or other laws being unable to petition the government to return their property, Lim said.
People benefiting from Article 6, Subparagraph 3 of the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例), who had the charges filed against them dropped or their guilty verdict repealed, are also unable to petition the government to return their property, he said.
Lim’s draft says that people who have had their property or assets confiscated by the government because they were accused of rebellion, sedition, and contravening the Punishment of Rebellion Act and the now-defunct Suppression of the Communist Rebellion Act (戡亂時期檢肅匪諜條例) between Aug. 15, 1945, and Nov. 6, 1992, can present evidence and petition the government to return their property within a year of the proposed bill’s passage.
The individuals must have received a not guilty verdict, had the charges against them dropped, or had their guilty verdict repealed, as per Article 6, Subparagraph 3 of the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice, the proposal says.
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