UA: 260/11 Index: ASA 38/004/2011 Issue Date: 31 August 2011
UNFAIR TRIAL LEADS TO IMMINENT EXECUTION
A Taiwanese man, Chiou Ho-shun, is in imminent danger of execution. He was sentenced to death in 1989 after an unfair trial. On 25 August, the Prosecutor General rejected a request to seek an extraordinary appeal for a retrial.
Chiou Ho-shun was detained in 1988 and tried in connection with two separate crimes: the kidnapping and killing of Lu Cheng and the murder of Ko Hung Yu-Lan. Only Chiou Hu-shun was sentenced to death; his 11 co-defendants were sentenced to prison terms, which they have all completed, apart from one who died in prison.
Chiou Ho-shun and his co-defendants say that they were held incommunicado for the first four months of their detention and they were tortured to make them confess. They later retracted their confessions.