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Special commission to look into military miscarriages of justice

ROC Central News Agency

2013/08/04 17:35:44

Taipei, Aug. 4 (CNA) A special commission will soon be set up to deal with miscarriages of justice involving military servicemen and will both act to look into suspicious cases and accept appeals from those seeking a review of past cases, an official said Sunday.

The commission will include officials from the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Justice, law experts and representatives from human rights groups and other civil groups, said Minister-without-Portfolio Luo Ying-shay, who was appointed to head the new commission by Premier Jiang Yi-huah.

Jiang announced the establishment of the commission on Saturday, in response to calls by an activist group, Citizen 1985, for improvements of human rights in the military.

The group led a mass protest near the Presidential Office in downtown Taipei Saturday, which drew more than 100,000 demonstrators, calling for reforms and transparency in the wake of the death of an Army conscript in early July.

After the commission is established, it will ask the defense ministry to submit documents on previous cases that may have involved miscarriages of justice related to military servicemen, Luo said.

The commission will then review those cases, she said.

A hotline will also be set up to accept appeals of cases involving servicemen, she added.

Saturday's rally was the second mass protest organized by the activist group since Corporal Hung Chung-chiu died of heatstroke on July 4, just two days before the completion of his one-year compulsory military service.

Hung was allegedly forced to perform strenuous exercises in sweltering heat as a penalty for taking a camera-equipped cell phone onto his base in Hsinchu County, northern Taiwan.

Eighteen Army officers were indicted following Hung's death, including the former commander of his brigade.

The officers were indicted on charges ranging from abuse leading to death to imposing illegal punishment on a subordinate and offenses against personal liberty, according to military prosecutors.

The 24-year-old had been subjected to exercises that were 'unbearable, cruel and abusive', resulting in his death from multiple organ failure triggered by heatstroke, military prosecutors said.

(By Hsieh Chia-chen and Elaine Hou)
ENDITEM/ROBERT