Cheng Tzu-tsai (鄭自才), a former dissident who conspired to assassinate then-vice premier Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) in the US in 1970, appeared in court on Tuesday last week seeking compensation for a one-year prison term he served in Taiwan on separate charges more than 30 years ago.
Cheng was imprisoned in November 1992 for illegally entering Taiwan the previous year, but his conviction was overturned in September last year by the Ministry of Justice.
The ministry approved Cheng’s application under the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例), legislation which aims to address injustices committed during the period of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) authoritarian rule in Taiwan from 1945 to 1992.
Photo: Yang Kuo-wen, Taipei Times
Speaking outside the High Court on Tuesday last week, Cheng said he is seeking the maximum compensation of NT$5,000 (US$152) per day calculated for every day of his 365-day sentence, a total of NT$1.825 million.
High Court judge Liu Wei-pi (劉為丕) said that the ministry’s decision to revoke Cheng’s conviction was based on transitional justice legislation, but whether this ruling is relevant to the Criminal Compensation Act (刑事補償法) has yet to be established by the court.
The case at the High Court continues.
Cheng alongside his brother-in-law and coconspirator Peter Huang (黃文雄) took part in a failed attempt to assassinate Chiang, who was visiting New York in April 20, 1970, to meet with then-US president Richard Nixon.
The pair later insisted they were motivated by political reasons to kill Chiang, the son of then-president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), who later replaced his father as president under the authoritarian KMT-led regime in 1978.
At the time, Cheng was secretary-general of the World United Formosans for Independence, an alliance of overseas Taiwanese promoting the establishment of a Republic of Taiwan.
Cheng was immediately arrested after the unsuccessful assassination attempt, but jumped bail in the US and later lived outside Taiwan for more than two decades.
He was arrested in January 1991 and imprisoned under the National Security Act (國家安全法) for illegally entering the country.
Now 89 years old, Cheng is chairman of the Sovereign State for Formosa and Pescadores Party, a small pro-Taiwanese independence political party established in 2019.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
RSS