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Officials might escape punishment for wrongful execution

ROC Central News Agency

2011/01/31 19:35:01

By Emmanuelle Tzeng, Lin chung-sen & Bear Lee

Taipei, Jan. 31 (CNA) There is a possibility that none of the generals or other military officers involved in the wrongful conviction and execution of a soldier 14 years ago will be punished due to statute of limitations set forth under relevant laws, judicial sources said Monday.

Chiang Kuo-chiang, a 21-year old conscript who in 1997 was serving at Air Force Combat Command in Taipei City, was convicted by a military court and executed in August that year for the rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl in September the previous year.

But upon re-opening the case, prosecutors found that the soldier might have been innocent and wrongfully executed, and the real perpetrator might be Chiang's fellow soldier, Hsu Jung-chou, who has now been detained.

The latest findings are based on new evidence and a confession by Hsu, who has a record of sexual offenses.

Chiang was tortured by air force anti-espionage personnel into making the confession that led to his conviction and execution.

The miscarriage of justice has caused a mounting outcry from around the country against the Ministry of National Defense (MND) , especially former defense ministers Chen Chao-min and Lee Tien-yu, then-head of Air Force Combat Command and director of the Political Warfare Department, respectively, when Chiang's case took place.

There have been calls for the authorities to hold Chen, Lee, the 14 anti-espionage torturers, and military prosecutors and judges accountable for the wrongful execution that seriously tarnished Taiwan's human rights record.

But according to Yang Mei-ling, a member of the Control Yuan, there is no way to mete out any "administrative penalty" to either Chen and Lee even if they are proved to have played a role in the case, as it happened 14 years ago, four years beyond the 10-year statute of limitations.

Yang cited the Act on the Discipline of Civil Servants and a constitutional interpretation that set the 10-year statute of limitations on investigations into misconduct of public servants.

The Control Yuan, the country's highest watchdog body, decided that the case should be re-opened after repeated appeals by Chiang's family.

The same situation will apply to Chiang's torturers, the military prosecutors and the judges, the judicial sources said.