Kaohsiung Prison warden Chen Shih-chih (陳世志) and two other senior officials were removed from their positions and demoted following a Ministry of Justice report that found them culpable for mishandling a deadly hostage siege at the prison.
The ministry released its assessment report on the Kaohsiung Prison siege late on Thursday night, which provided new information and eyewitness accounts.
Aside from being demoted, Chen, along with deputy warden Lai Cheng-jung (賴政榮) and Guard and Control Section head Wang Shih-chang (王世倉), each received a major demerit.
Photo: Chang Chung-i, Taipei Times
The report came two weeks after the 14-hour siege at Kaohsiung Prison on Feb. 11 and 12, which culminated in the apparent suicides of six inmates and left many questions as to what had happened.
Although reprimands were meted out to a total of 23 prison officials, the report’s main focus was on Chen and his two deputies, Lai and Wang.
Agency of Corrections director Wu Hsien-chang (吳憲璋) was also given a major demerit, while deputy director Chiu Hung-chi (邱鴻基) was given a minor demerit.
Delivered by Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) on Thursday night, the report painted a dramatically different picture from the initial Feb. 13 report, which portrayed Chen and his deputies as heroes who made courageous efforts to foil the attempted jailbreak.
“Through the first 30 minutes, warden Chen did not know anything serious was happening in the prison, and carried on with his inept leadership. The command structure and communication links broke down, and he was not on top of the situation as it developed. None of the deputies or supervisors reported to the warden during that time to inform him of what was happening,” the report said.
“This led to lost opportunities to contain the events and resulted in a major crisis at the prison. It is clear that warden Chen is unsuitable for the senior post, and he has been demoted to a section chief position at the Agency of Corrections,” Chen Ming-tang said.
Critics and media said Chen Shih-chih has gone from “hero to zero,” as the report has shown him to be “an incompetent, bungling prison chief” who was taken hostage at gunpoint after he heedlessly rushed to the scene, and then pretended to “sacrifice” himself by offering himself in exchange for the hostages who were taken earlier.
The report also pointed to other blunders and bad decisionmaking that led to the situation going out of control.
The report said Chen Shih-chih acquiesced to the prisoners by ordering two getaway vehicles to enter the prison and was found to be carrying a handgun when he was released unharmed, but he had denied this when asked by reporters.
The report represents embarrassing backtracking on the initial report — endorsed by Minister of Justice Luo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) — which lauded Chen Shih-chih and his deputies for “displaying courage to shoulder their responsibilities” and “handing the situation with befitting appropriateness.”
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) last night said the prison officials should not just be demoted and given demerits, but should be fired and prosecuted.
She added that Luo should resign over her handling of the affair.
Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Chou Ni-an (周倪安) also demanded Luo’s resignation.
“This is another big scandal, following last year’s bribery probe of imprisoned tycoon Gary Wang (王令麟) at Taipei Prison last year,” Chou said. “Luo should apologize to the public and resign.”
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS