Fisherman not under influence when shot: official
ROC Central News Agency
2013/05/27 20:19:31
Taipei, May 27 (CNA) A Ministry of Justice (MOJ) official on Monday rejected a suggestion that a fisherman killed by Philippine maritime patrol personnel earlier this month had been under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Chou Chang-ching, acting director-general of the Institute of Forensic Medicine under the MOJ, said that an autopsy on Hung Shih-cheng showed that he did not ingest any drugs or alcohol just before his death.
The fisherman was in good health and free from illnesses, Chang added.
Chou was responding to a question raised earlier by Philippine authorities about possible influence of drugs or alcohol on the 65-year-old fisherman and whether such an influence led him to try to ram his smaller fishing boat into the much larger Philippine patrol boat.
Philippine Coast Guard personnel have claimed that they opened fire after the Taiwanese fishing boat, captained not by the elder Hung but rather his son, tried to ram their vessel.
The shooting incident on May 9 in the two countries' overlapping exclusive economic zones has sparked a diplomatic row in which the Taiwanese government slapped sanctions on the Philippines, including a freeze on the hiring of Filipino workers.
Chou's comments came as a team of Philippine law enforcement officers arrived in Taiwan on Monday as part of Manila's investigation into the shooting, and Taiwan sent its investigators to Manila the same day to conduct a parallel inquiry.
Chen Ming-tang, deputy minister of justice, said that the two governments are conducting a cooperative investigation in order to reach a finding based on consensus.
Asked whether a failure to reach a consensus would trigger new sanctions on the Philippines, Chen said his ministry would make recommendations to the Cabinet and the president, and they would make a final decision.
(By Wang Chao-yu, Angela Tsai and Jay Chen)
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