Taiwan executes six death-row inmates
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| The wrongful execution of a soldier sparked a debate over the death penalty. Photo: BBC News |
TAIWAN has executed six more death-row inmates, just a few months after the same number of prisoners were put to death, as the debate continued over the need for capital punishment.
Three were executed in Tainan city in the island's south and one each in the capital Taipei, eastern Hualien and central Taichung cities, the justice ministry said in a statement.
They were anaesthetised and then shot, it said.
Taiwan executed six prisoners in December 2012, five in 2011 and four in 2010 -- the 2010 executions were the first after a hiatus that had lasted since 2005.
With Friday's executions, the number of death row inmates now stands at 50, according to the ministry.
Taiwan reserves the death penalty for serious crimes including aggravated murder and kidnapping, but the political elite is divided about whether to maintain it.
A lingering debate on abolishing the death penalty has been renewed recently as judicial and military authorities came under fire over the execution of a soldier wrongly convicted in a child murder case.
Chiang Kuo-ching, a 21-year-old serviceman executed by shooting in 1997, was posthumously acquitted in a military court in 2011 for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl, due to insufficient evidence.
He had insisted he was innocent and that he was coerced by a group of air force intelligence officers into confessing.
Three were executed in Tainan city in the island's south and one each in the capital Taipei, eastern Hualien and central Taichung cities, the justice ministry said in a statement.
They were anaesthetised and then shot, it said.
Taiwan executed six prisoners in December 2012, five in 2011 and four in 2010 -- the 2010 executions were the first after a hiatus that had lasted since 2005.
With Friday's executions, the number of death row inmates now stands at 50, according to the ministry.
Taiwan reserves the death penalty for serious crimes including aggravated murder and kidnapping, but the political elite is divided about whether to maintain it.
A lingering debate on abolishing the death penalty has been renewed recently as judicial and military authorities came under fire over the execution of a soldier wrongly convicted in a child murder case.
Chiang Kuo-ching, a 21-year-old serviceman executed by shooting in 1997, was posthumously acquitted in a military court in 2011 for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl, due to insufficient evidence.
He had insisted he was innocent and that he was coerced by a group of air force intelligence officers into confessing.
Courtesy: The Australian News
