A former graduate student of National Tsinghua University who murdered her love rival and mutilated her body in 1998 was released on parole yesterday after serving more than two-thirds, or nearly 11 years, of her sentence for the crime.
Meeting the press at the gate of the prison, Hung Hsiao-hui (洪曉慧) yesterday apologized to the public for what she did.
HURT
“I will do my best to do what I am supposed to do. Thank you for giving me a chance to live again,” she said. “I will try my best to make it up to those I have hurt in the past.”
Hung regained her freedom after the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) granted her parole on Nov. 11. The ministry cited a number of factors in its decision, including the fact that Hung had served more than two-thirds of her sentence of 16 years and three months with good behavior and had been awarded merits on nine occasions for good behavior as an inmate.
PROBATION
Hung will be on parole for the remaining five years of her sentence, during which she will be required by law to report to probation officers once a month.
The Kaohsiung Women’s Prison had applied for parole on Hung’s behalf four times, but was rejected three times by a Kaohsiung prison parole review board and once by the ministry.
Hung was found guilty of killing and mutilating her classmate Hsu Chia-chen (�?u) in an auditorium at National Tsinghua University in March 1998 after she found out that Hsu was having a relationship with her boyfriend, Tseng Huan-tai (曾煥泰).
Hung and Hsu were both second-year graduate students at the university’s radiobiology institute at the time.
SENTENCE
During an argument, Hung knocked Hsu unconscious and poured aqua regia — a potent corrosive chemical — over Hsu’s nose and mouth, killing her. Hung then dragged the body to the rear of the auditorium in the hope that it would remain undetected. After the murder, both Hung and Tseng, who was also a graduate student, dropped out of school.
Hung was eventually sentenced to 18 years in a jail, which was reduced last year to 16 years and three months, and ordered by the court to pay Hsu’s parents NT$24 million (US$718,600) in compensation.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS