The Transitional Justice Commission last week overturned the guilty verdict of a former mechanic court-martialed 47 years ago, saying that the original ruling contravened the principles of criminal law.
Chen Wen-chiung (陳文炯) was court-martialed in 1974 for insulting a commanding officer, which at that time contravened Article 75 of the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法), and was sentenced to less than three years in prison. The act has since been amended, moving such an offense to a different article.
During the review, Chen told the commission that he was employed as a mechanic at the Joint Logistics Command’s Factory 44, and although considered a subordinate of the factory commander, he was not serving in the military.
Chen said that he was taken to the Joint Logistics Command by the military police and was alone during the trial, adding that he was detained for four months before they read him his verdict.
Trial documents showed that Chen was accused of having a tendency of slacking off and often taking leave, and had used an expletive when demanding an answer from the factory commander, surnamed Yen (晏), on June 8, 1974.
Openly insulting a commander undermines the chain of command and should be appropriately punished to prevent similar occurrences, the documents said.
The commission said that the court martial used Article 75 of the act simply because it was procedurally applicable, while ignoring that Chen was not a member of the military, which contravened the principles of criminal law.
Court martialing should not apply to anyone outside of serving military personnel, as clearly stated in Article 9 of the Constitution, the commission said.
While articles 8 and 9 of the Martial Law Act (戒嚴法) provided an exception, it only allowed people outside the military to be tried under military law for certain offenses, but did not extend the military court’s jurisdiction over substantive law, the commission said.
The court’s verdict was delivered without prior investigation to substantiate the charges, and based on the conditions described in the court martial, the expletive Chen used should not be considered an act of defamation, but rather an emotional outburst, the commission said.
The incident is another example of an authoritarian government seeking to secure its rule, oppressing any dissent and preventing people from developing individuality, the commission said.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans