The EU yesterday called on Taiwan to refrain from using the death penalty, following the execution of murderer Weng Jen-hsien (翁仁賢) on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court on July 10 last year sentenced Weng, 53, to death after he was convicted of killing his parents, his niece, his nephew, his nephew’s wife and his parents’ caregiver in 2016.
Weng was executed in New Taipei City on Wednesday evening.
“The European Union condemns this crime in the strongest terms and expresses its sincere sympathy to the family of his victims,” the European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan yesterday wrote on Facebook in English, relaying a statement from the EU Foreign Affairs Council.
“At the same time, the EU recalls its opposition to the use of capital punishment under any circumstances. The EU believes that the death penalty is a cruel and inhumane punishment, which fails to act as a deterrent to crime and represents an unacceptable denial of human dignity and integrity,” it wrote.
“The European Union therefore calls on Taiwan to refrain from any future executions, to reinstate and maintain a de facto moratorium and to pursue a consistent policy towards the abolition of the death penalty in Taiwan,” it added.
Weng’s was the second execution carried out since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in May 2016, following the execution of death row inmate Lee Hung-chi (李宏基) in 2018.
The Ministry of Justice on Wednesday said in a news release that it understands there are different opinions about the death penalty, adding that it has been cautious about conducting executions before Taiwanese society reaches a consensus to abolish capital punishment.
The ministry said that it would continue communicating with advocates of abolishing or suspending the death penalty and working to strengthen social security and victim support networks, as well as educational initiatives on restorative justice, human rights and the rule of law, so that it might propose alternatives to capital punishment.
The Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty on Thursday said that it would withdraw from a ministry task force established in 2010 to research the gradual abolition of capital punishment, citing the ministry’s inaction on the issue.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods