Constitutional Court rejects petition against executions
2010/05/28 18:22:32
Taipei, May 28 (CNA) The Justices of Constitutional Court rejected a petition Friday aimed at halting plans to execute the 40 inmates that remain on death row.
"Execution of the death row prisoners would not go against the two United Nations covenants that Taiwan has signed, " the court said, referring to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that passed Taiwan's legislature on March 31, 2009 and were signed into law by President Ma Ying-jeou the next month.
The petition was filed by the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty on behalf of the 40 death row inmates.
Taiwan executed four of the 44 prisoners on death row April 30, five weeks after former Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng resigned amid a political storm sparked by her statement that she would not sign any death warrants during her term.
With the latest ruling by the Constitutional Court, local law experts said the Ministry of Justice could resume execution of the death row inmates at any time.
Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu, however, said in a symposium with prosecutors in the central Taiwan city of Chiayi earlier Friday that there is no timetable for executing the remaining death row prisoners.
"Since it's impossible for us to execute all the 40 inmates simultaneously, we will make those who committed the most brutal crimes the priority for execution," Tseng said. (By Chen Yi-wei, Huang Kuo-fang & Bear Lee) enditem/bc
source: http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aALL&ID=20100528...
