A government foundation on Friday approved 13 applications for reparations for harm from political persecution during the nation’s authoritarian period totaling NT$34.17 million (US$1.22 million).
The applications were filed with the Restoration of Victims’ Rights Infringed by Illegal Acts of the State During the Period of Authoritarian Rule Foundation, with NT$7.36 million granted as the largest sum, the foundation said in statement.
The cases showed how severely people’s rights were infringed under authoritarian rule, with one claimant being deprived of their civil rights for 10 years and sentenced to 15 years in prison because they had read books categorized as “leftist,” it said.
In another case, a person who was found to have written slogans in the toilet of a theater in Hsinchu was jailed for seven years in line with the now-abolished Punishment of Rebellion Act (懲治叛亂條例), the foundation said.
According to legislation enacted last year, on which the foundation was established, authoritarian rule refers to the period from Aug. 15, 1945, to when martial law imposed in 1949 was lifted in Kinmen and Lienchiang counties on Nov. 6, 1992, five years after it ended in the rest of Taiwan.
The government began providing redress in the late 1990s, when then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was in office, but the measure was characterized as “compensation” rather than “reparations.”
Separately, the Ministry of Justice on Friday said that it would overturn criminal charges against 420 people wrongfully convicted during the authoritarian era following a review of the cases.
The ministry would inform agencies of the need to expunge the criminal records of the individuals in documents kept by the government to restore their reputations, as well as those of their family members, as part of the ongoing process of transitional justice, it said.
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