Human rights groups on Friday urged President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to pardon death row inmate Chiou Ho-shun (邱和順), who they said was tortured and forced to confess to two murders in the late 1980s.
The groups issued the call ahead of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture yesterday.
In an online news conference, the groups asked Tsai to issue Chiou, 61, a presidential pardon, adding that he “represented a well-known miscarriage of justice, of an innocent man falsely convicted of murder.”
“It is a major stain on Taiwan’s justice system and a serious violation of human rights,” said the statement signed by representatives of the Judicial Reform Foundation, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights and the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, among others, including lawyers seeking to appeal Chiou’s case.
“Subsequent findings and testimony have shown that Chiou was tortured during an interrogation by police investigators to extract his confession,” the statement said.
Chiou was among 12 people accused of killing insurance agent Hung Yu-lan (洪玉蘭) in Miaoli County, and kidnapping and killing a nine-year-old boy, Lu Cheng (陸正), both in 1987.
Investigators at the time said that Chiou was the mastermind behind the killings, and convicted him on charges of robbery, kidnapping and murder.
After appeals and retrials, Chiou was the only defendant to receive the death sentence, and has been on death row since 1989.
In 2011, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal in the 11th retrial to uphold the death sentence.
Over the years, the Control Yuan has presented four reports on the Chiou case, concluding that he did not participate in the murders and should be acquitted of all charges, said Control Yuan member Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠), who is vice chairman of the National Human Rights Commission.
“However, throughout the later trials, the judges did not examine testimony from the defendant and main witnesses, and did not review any additional evidence, in upholding the death sentence,” Kao said, adding that proceedings had contravened the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Since Chiou cannot receive a fair trial, and as the judicial process was flawed, the only recourse left is to pardon him, Kao said.
During the initial investigation, “Chiou was detained for four months without representation,” attorney Yu Po-hsiang (尤伯祥) said.
“During the lengthy isolation, and with no consultation from outside, he signed 288 confession papers, supposedly an admission for the crimes,” Yu said.
“These confessions most likely came as a result of torture, beatings and other inhumane treatment... Chiou suffers from various illnesses, and his health deteriorates each day while in prison,” he said, adding that the Ministry of Justice should review his condition and to consider releasing him on medical parole.
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