The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant.
Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral.
Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty in the second and sentenced to four months in prison, which was commutable to a fine.
Photo: Taipei Times
However, as Chu, 37, passed away during the second appeal, the Supreme Court returned the case to the prosecutors, saying it could not rule as the defendant had died.
The Control Yuan later found that Weng had reached out to multiple judges during Chu’s criminal and civil trials, and forwarded its findings to the High Prosecutors’ Office for further investigation.
The High Prosecutors’ Office filed for a retrial in 2021, citing the discovery of new evidence showing that Chu was innocent, but the appeal was denied by the High Court and the Supreme Court, citing a breach of procedure.
Prosecutor-General Hsing Tai-chao (邢泰釗) launched an extraordinary appeal in 2022, resulting in the Supreme Court rescinding its former ruling that it would not review the case for Chu after his passing, paving the way for the High Prosecutors’ Office to appeal the verdict last year.
In its appeal, the High Prosecutors Office said that Chu had no intention of falsifying information and that the prosecutors’ appeal to retry the case at the second appellate court was groundless.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said the High Prosecutors’ Office action highlighted the success of Taiwan’s extraordinary appeal system in correcting erroneous rulings and rendering justice to those who were wrongfully convicted.
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