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.
