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President apologizes over possible wrongful execution

ROC Central News Agency

2011/01/31 22:08:42

By Lee Shu-hua and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Jan. 31 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou apologized on Monday to Taiwan's people and the family of an Air Force private who was executed for a rape-murder case 15 years ago, over the fact that the serviceman might have been wrongly executed.

The apology was conveyed by Ma's spokesman, Lo Chih-chiang, at a press conference.

The president has also ordered the Ministry of National Defense to conduct an internal review of what the military did wrong in investigating private Chiang Kuo-ching's alleged involvement in the abuse and murder of a five-year-old girl at the Air Force Combat Command in Taipei in 1996, Lo said.

He added that Ma also instructed the ministry to act as soon as possible to find out whom should be held responsible for what Control Yuan members described as the mishandling of Chiang's case, which they believe cost the 20-year-old conscript his life.

The Control Yuan is a branch of government that monitors the behavior of public officials and civil servants.

Ma said that as the Republic of China president, he has the duty to deliver a public apology to Chiang and his family on behalf of the government, according to Lo.

Ma also apologized for the social disturbance caused by the case. Judicial authorities arrested another suspect in the case on Saturday following the discovery of convincing evidence indicating that Chiang may have been innocent.

During his trial in late 1996 and 1997, Chiang said that he had earlier made a confession only because he was tortured by military investigators. He was executed in August 1997, less than a year after the murder occurred.

Lo pointed out that human rights protection and judicial reform have been part of President Ma's most important political beliefs, and the report of a possible miscarriage of justice prompted Ma to insist that reforms must be carried out, the spokesman said.