The Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation yesterday questioned the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office’s reinvestigation into the murder of the family members of former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) and urged the office to publicize all original records of investigations relevant to the case.
At a public hearing at the legislature, Wu Nai-teh (吳乃德), a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at Academia Sinica and president of the association, said members of the organization were deeply disappointed when reading through the office’s report on the reinvestigation into the case.
“[The report] not only failed to clarify any suspicious points [of the case] but also failed to elaborate on some major questions that might help solve the case,” Wu said.
“The report reinforces the public’s [negative] impression of the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] and regrettably fails to help the politically polarized nation move toward reconciliation,” Wu said.
The prosecutors office reopened the Lin family murder case and the probe into the death of Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), a math professor who is believed to have been murdered in March 1981 during the White Terror by the KMT government.
However, after a four-month investigation, prosecutors concluded on July 28 that they were unable to make any breakthrough in the Lin case because they lacked sufficient forensic evidence.
Prosecutors said they also did not find any evidence showing that the former Taiwan Garrison Command had been involved in killing Lin’s mother and twin daughters in 1980.
Wu said if prosecutors could clarify that past intelligence organizations kept the Lin family under 24-hour surveillance, prosecutors could conclude that the murderer was related to the organizations.
The association hoped prosecutors could make public more details of their investigation, including whether they found any documents recording past intelligence agencies’ surveillance of dissidents, Wu said.
An official from the Professor Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation also questioned the prosecutors’ reinvestigation into Chen’s death during the hearing.
Hsieh Ying-ching (謝穎青), a lawyer at the foundation, said the prosecutors’ conclusion still failed to explain if Chen died on the campus of National Taiwan University, where the 31-year-old professor’s body was found, or whether he died elsewhere and the body was moved. Chen’s body was found the day after he was questioned by the Garrison Guard on July 2, 1981.
Prosecutors also failed to find solid evidence to prove that Chen was not drugged or battered before death, Hsieh said.
An autopsy report at the time said judging from Chen’s injuries, he had fallen to his death from either the fourth or fifth floor of a building. However, it is still unclear whether the professor was pushed or committed suicide.
Hsieh urged prosecutors to make public all documented interviews or polygraph tests of witnesses related to Chen’s case.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
RSS