New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, yesterday reiterated that he opposes lifting the death penalty, as it remains the last line of defense against crime.
Hou spoke on the issue at a news conference in New Taipei City after reading a letter from the parents of a ninth-grade boy who was stabbed to death on Dec. 25 during a quarrel with another student at school.
In the letter, the parents asked the government not to annul the death penalty.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
“I understand how the family must have felt. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is against the death penalty and intends to replace it by not executing those who have already been sentenced to death,” Hou said. “Since when did the law become one that protects perpetrators and harms victims?”
“I oppose lifting the death penalty, as it remains the last line of defense against crime,” he added.
“Vice President and DPP presidential candidate William Lai (賴清德) should tell the public whether he is for or against the death penalty, and whether he would execute those who are on death row,” he said. “People want answers to these questions from someone who wants to be the leader of this country.”
Following the incident, the DPP proposed a “social safety net 2.0” to address the issue of campus safety, but it was nothing new, Hou said.
“Former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) budgeted NT$40.7 billion [US$1.31 billion] to upgrade the social safety net,” Hou said. “However, the result of the money-squandering campaign was a social safety net filled with loopholes. It did not address core problems.”
“It takes more than just a budget to prevent campus violence,” he said, adding that he had proposed enhancing security inspections at schools and imposing heavier criminal sentences for organized crime groups who recruit minors.
Lai’s campaign spokesman Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) said that New Taipei City’s crime rate jumped 16 percent from January to November last year from the same period in 2022 because Hou was busy with his presidential campaign.
As a former National Police Administration director-general, Hou should know that safety issues cannot be addressed without first reducing criminal cases, Chen said.
“Taiwan still has the death penalty. The government has been implementing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights since former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration,” he said. “As such, we have to be extremely cautious in the executions of those who have been sentenced to death.”
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