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MND vows punishment of officers if wrongful execution is proved

ROC Central News Agency

2011/01/29 22:05:42

Taipei, Jan. 29 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) will cooperate with judicial authorities to investigate whether the execution of a soldier in a rape-murder case 15 years ago was a miscarriage of justice, it said Saturday.

If it is found that the perpetrator was not the soldier who was executed by military judicial authorities in 1997, but rather was a man detained on Friday, all military personnel responsible for the wrongful execution will be punished, the ministry said in a statement.

The punishments will be meted out in accordance with the Civil Code, Criminal Code and administrative regulations, the MND added.

The ministry was commenting on the detention of Hsu Jung-chou who confessed in a reopening of the case to raping and killing a little girl in 1996.

Hsu was detained following an appearance in court on Friday when he confessed to acting alone when he committed the crime.

The case was re-opened after the Control Yuan censured the military last May over flaws in its probe into the crime, in which the girl, identified only by her surname Hsieh, was found dead outside a toilet at the Air Force Combat Command in Taipei City.

Ombudsmen of the watchdog Control Yuan discovered that military investigators, under pressure to crack the case, had tortured Chiang Kuo-ching, a young conscript, to extract a confession.

Once in court, Chiang withdrew his confession and pleaded not guilty but was executed in August 1997, less than a year after the crime took place.

Following the censure against the military in 2010, the Supreme Prosecutors Office ordered a new investigation.

On Friday, prosecutors in the central city of Taichung summoned Hsu, who was also serving at the Air Force base in Chiang's unit when the murder occurred, for questioning related to the case and another case of child molestation.

When questioned, Hsu said that he was the perpetrator of the 1996 crime, according to the prosecutors.

Hsu had been convicted in two other molestation cases which happened in 1997 and 2003, respectively. He was sentenced to a total of 12 and a half years in prison but won a parole last year. (By Hsieh chia-chen and Sofia Wu) enditem/pc