|
MND files suit to
collect wrongful death payment
ANTEING UP: The ministry wants a district court
to seize eight people’s property to make sure they pay NT$103.18 million to the
mother of a wrongfully executed serviceman
By Rich Chang / Staff Reporter
Former minister of national
defense Chen Chao-min is surrounded by reporters in an undated file photo.
Photo: CNA
The Ministry of National Defense (MND)
yesterday filed a provisional lawsuit with the Taipei District Court asking it
to seize the property of former minister of national defense Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏)
and seven former military officials to ensure they return NT$103.18 million
(US$3.4 million) in compensation that has been paid to the family of an air
force serviceman who was wrongly executed 14 years ago for the rape and murder
of a young girl.
In a ruling on Oct. 27, the Northern Military District Court awarded this amount
in damages to Wang Tsai-lien (王彩蓮), the mother of wrongfully executed air force
serviceman Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶).
The ruling said the military court had formed a committee to decide who would be
responsible for paying the compensation.
After interviewing those involved in the case, five legal experts and four
district military court members on the committee determined that Chen, who was
then the air force commander, and former air force counterintelligence officials
Ko Chung-ching (柯仲慶), Teng Chun-huan (鄧震環), Lee Shu-chiang (李書強) and Ho Tsu-yao
(何祖耀), former Air Force Command legal department director Tsao Chia-sheng (曹嘉生),
as well as former military prosecutors Chao Tai-shen (趙台生) and Huang Jui-peng
(黃瑞鵬), should be responsible for the compensation.
The ministry said to ensure that the compensation would be paid, officials had
filed a provisional seizure lawsuit against the eight former officials, asking
the district court to seize their properties.
According to Chen’s asset report to the Control Yuan, he owns two property units
and one plot of land, has NT$11.38 million in bank deposits, NT$780,000 in
jewelry and NT$580,000 in stocks.
In 1996, Chiang was accused of raping and killing a five-year-old girl at Air
Force Combat Command in Taipei. He confessed to air force counterintelligence
officers that he had committed the crime and was later convicted and sentenced
to death. Chiang was executed in 1997 at the age of 21.
However, in a retrial of the case in September this year, the military court
acquitted Chiang of the charges, ruling that his confession had been made under
duress and was not admissible.
Furthermore, the evidence presented in the case, such as the suspected murder
weapon and a tissue stained with the child’s blood, was not conclusive and had
not been subject to modern forensic examination, the court ruled.
|
