Save the Hsichi Trio: Walk toward the light
Amnesty International - Report
An International Amnesty Letter to President Chen Shui-bian
The three men, then aged 18 and recent high school graduates, were arrested in August 1991 in Hsichih (¦Á¤î¡Ain the north of Taiwan). They were accused of murdering a husband and wife, convicted on charges of murder, robbery and rape and sentenced to death. The three men claim to have been tortured and forced to make false confessions and there appears to have been no direct or physical evidence to convict them, other than their confessions. A fourth man who implicated them in the alleged crime was also arrested, tried speedily by a military court and executed just five months later.
In spite of a protracted legal process in which the Supreme Court (Taiwan's highest court of appeal) twice returned the case to a lower court for reconsideration, the conviction was upheld in February 1995. In an unusual move, Taiwan's Prosecutor General made three special appeals to the Supreme Court to review the case, but each of his appeals was rejected. Four police officers suspected of torture have not been prosecuted.
It would appear that few people in judicial and government circles believe the three men to be guilty, and yet the government seems unable to take action to rectify the situation. Two successive Ministers of Justice have declined to sign execution orders, but the men remain in a precarious position. The stress of knowing that they may be executed any day has led to a deterioration of their physical and mental health. The Taiwan Association for Human Rights reports that Su Chien-ho is losing weight, Liu Bin-lang has become withdrawn and Chuang Lin-hsun has started to show signs of mild schizophrenia.
¡iArrest and Interrogation¡j
On 24 March 1991, in the early hours of the morning, a husband and wife were
murdered in their home in the town of Hsichih, in the north of Taiwan. On the
same evening Su Chien- ho and Liu Bin-lang went out for the evening with a friend
called Wang Wen-chung¡]¤ý¤å©¾¡^and his brother Wang Wen-hsiao¡]¤ý¤å§µ¡^, both of whom
were completing their military service at the time. They spent the evening
in Hsichih and Keelung before returning home in the early hours of the morning.
Chuang Lin-shun spent the evening at home with his family.
Five months later, on 13 August 1991, Wang Wen-hsiao was arrested on the grounds
that his fingerprint was found on an envelope at the scene of the murder. He
was interrogated first by a military prosecutor and later by the Hsichih police.
His various confessions to the murder are inconsistent but the later ones named
his brother and his brother's three friends as accomplices.
Wang Wen-hsiao was tried speedily by a military court, found guilty and executed in January 1992. It is not known whether he was ill-treated during interrogation by the military prosecutor and the police. The military court proceedings of his trial were later reported by the authorities to have been lost. His brother, Wang Wen-chung, was also tried by a military court and sentenced to two years and eight months' imprisonment, which he has already served.
Su Chien-ho, Liu Bin-lang, and Chuang Lin-hsun were arrested by the police on 15 August 1991. The police did not have arrest warrants, did not inform the men's families about the arrests and searched Chuang's home without a search warrant. During interrogation by the Hsichih police, the men claim to have been tortured and forced to confess to the murders. They were each told that the others had already confessed. None of the confessions they made were consistent with each other and all three later denied committing the murder.
¡iCharge and trial; special appeals by the Prosecutor General¡j
On 4 October 1991 Su Chien-ho, Liu Bin-lang and Chuang Lin-hsun were charged under the Act for the Control and Punishment of Banditry with robbery, murder and rape, a combination of offences which carries a mandatory death sentence. Their trial opened before Shilin District Court on 11 October 1991 and they were tried before a panel of three judges.
Taiwanese law does not allow conviction solely on the basis of confession, but confessions frequently constitute the major item of evidence in criminal cases in Taiwan. In this case, the court based its verdict almost exclusively on the coerced confessions. Corroborative evidence was almost completely lacking. There were no corroborating eye- witnesses and no direct physical evidence linking the co-defendants to the crime.
During the district court proceedings the judges reportedly refused to call some of the defense witnesses, including fellow prisoners who might have corroborated the men's claims of torture and several other people who claim to have seen the three men elsewhere on the night of the murder. The coroner's testimony appeared to rule out any possibility that the female victim had been raped and forensic evidence from the scene of the crime was apparently not presented to the court. In spite of this, the men were found guilty on all charges and on 18 February 1992 they were sentenced to death.
After a lengthy and convoluted series of appeals to both the High Court and the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court on 13 February 1995 confirmed the original verdicts and the final sentence was rendered. All standard avenues of appeal have been exhausted and the three men could now be executed at any time.
In February, April and July 1995, Prosecutor General Chen Han¡]³¯²[¡^, made three special appeals to the Supreme Court calling for the case to be reviewed. The main reasons for his appeals were the lack of evidence, inconsistencies in the various confessions, illegality in the arrest procedures, lack of evidence of rape and the testimony of Wang Wen-chung. The latter, who had been charged as an accomplice, was tried separately in a military court and sentenced to two years and eight months' imprisonment for conspiracy to commit robbery. After release, he completed his military service and was discharged in June 1996. After leaving the military, he spoke publicly about the case. He said he had been beaten and threatened during police interrogation and forced to make a confession which incriminated his three friends. He also claimed to have seen police officials torturing the three men by beating them with wooden swords and electric shock batons.
The three special appeals by the Prosecutor General were rejected by the Supreme Court and in August 1995 Shilin Prosecutor's Office decided not to charge the four police officers who had been accused of torturing the suspects.
¡iCampaign for the Three Men¡j
Thousands of people in Taiwan appealed to President Lee Teng-hui for clemency. Appeals on behalf of the three have come from all sectors of society, including lawyers, businessmen, legal scholars, lawmakers, activists and journalists. In June 1996 a group of 58 organizations, led by the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Humanistic Education Foundation, the Green Party, and the Judicial Reform Foundation, came together to form the "Campaign to save the innocent from execution". The campaign has organized letter-writing appeals, petitions, demonstrations and public events to raise awareness about the case. In 1995 and 1996 Amnesty International issued a series of Urgent Action appeals on behalf of the three men.
In 1999, in an effort to increase publicity of the three men's plight, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights invited twelve writers to visit the three in the Tu-chen jail. Following the visit, each of the writers published articles pertaining to the case either in the Taiwan Daily or the China Times over a period of four days.
In further efforts to save the Hsichih Trio, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Humanistic Education Foundation, and the Judicial Reform Foundation began cooperative efforts in April 2000 to create a vigil campaign called "Walk Toward the Dawn" at the Chi-nan Church. Concerned citizens, family of the men, and others devoted to human rights and social justice gather every night at the church to walk in silent protest of this miscarriage of justice. Every Sunday participants gather for a musical performance in honor of the continuing suffering of the men as well as the continuing struggle for human rights in Taiwan. A journal has been created by vigil participants, documenting the events of each night as well as their emotions and observations as they "walked toward the dawn" of new justice in Taiwan.
The first one hundred journal entries were published in the Taiwan Daily as well as in a recently published book along with the previously mentioned essays written by professional journalists and writers. All journal entries after the first one hundred have been published to the internet in the "Tomorrow Times." The book, published in October, 2000 and entitled Walk toward the Dawn, as well as these daily dairies provide a lasting testament to the current fight for justice in Taiwan.
Having exhausted all other methods to end this continued violation of human rights, the current goal of the campaign is to have the President grant amnesty to the three men and free them from the prison where they have been unjustly held. President Chen Shui-bian has inherited this crime from his predecessors and has pledged to focus on human rights in Taiwan, but only with continued pressure from around the world can we be sure that he will have the courage to exonerate these men and repair the mistakes of the past administrations.
Note: Portions of the above description were prepared by Amnesty International Taiwan.
¡iACTION¡GWHAT YOU CAN DO¡j
¡» Send appeals to the President and Minister of Justice in Taiwan.
¡» Sign and return attached letter.
¡» Call on President Chen Shui-bian to exercise his constitutional power to
repeal the death sentences imposed on the three men.
¡» Call on the Minister of Justice to refuse signing a warrant for the three
men's execution and urge him to order a thorough and independent investigation
into their conviction.
¡» Visit our website at www.tahr.org.tw for updates.