SAGA CONTINUES: Three defendants convicted of murder last month based on confessions that were given under duress are expected to face a 12th trial
By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, May 22, 2009, Page 2
Human rights and judicial reform activists yesterday accused the High Court of bias after the latest ruling against three defendants in a combined case involving two murders.
The Judicial Reform Foundation and other groups said the case was based on disputed confessions, parts of which were extracted through torture.
Say NO to Judicial Indolence and Sham Justice
A Press Conference by NGOs Supporting Defendants Chiou Ho-shun et al.
Joint Press Release by the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Judicial Reform Foundation, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association, and Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty 【21 May 2009】
Chiou Ho-shun and his co-defendants were indicted 22 years ago in the case of the murder of Ms. Ko Hung Yu-lan and the kidnapping of schoolboy Lu Cheng (two cases joined as a single case by the prosecutors in the indictment). The judiciary still has not handed down a final and conclusive judgment in this case, making it the longest-running undecided case with defendants in detention in Taiwan's judicial history. The defendants Chiou Ho-shun and Lin Kun-ming have been in detention for over 21 years. The other original defendants have successively waived their rights of appeal, having chosen to serve out sentences rather than suffer continued protracted litigation and the risk of remaining deprived of their liberty, but they have continued to state their innocence. Proven criminal conduct by the police and abuses of authority by prosecutors during the investigation and prosecution of this case, and ingrained indolence on the parts of the judges who have heard the case on repeated appeals over the years, make this case a vivid example of issues underlying Taiwan's failure to make real strides in reforms toward protecting human rights in criminal judicial procedure.
Say NO to Judicial Indolence and Sham Justice
A Press Conference by NGOs Supporting Chiou Ho-shun
Time: 21 May (Thursday) 10 a.m.
Place: National Taiwan University Alumni Club (Conference Room 3C, 2-1, Chi-Nan Rd., Sec. 1, Taipei)
The kidnapping and presumed murder of Hsinchu schoolboy Lu Cheng in 1987 aroused great public concern. Twelve suspects arrested in the case were indicted by the public prosecutor's office solely on the basis of mutually contradictory "confessions" made during police interrogation. It has been proven that these confessions were extracted by torture. The case has been under trial for 22 years, bouncing back and forth between the High Court and the Supreme Court in a drawn-out cycle of appeals, vacated judgments, and remands, becoming the longest-running undecided case with defendants in detention in Taiwan's judicial history.
