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Hung video ‘not tampered with’
By Rich Chang / Staff reporter, with CNA
Mother of deceased army corporal
Hung Chung-chiu, center, weeps yesterday as she responds to questions from
reporters.
Photo: CNA
There was no tampering with surveillance
footage of the holding cell where an army corporal had been confined before his
sudden death last month, a prosecutor at the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’
Office said yesterday.
Blank footage and 80 minutes of missing video were caused by loose plugs and
technical problems with the video recording system, said Tai Wen-liang (戴文亮), a
prosecutor in charge of investigating the footage, two days after charges were
filed in the death of corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘).
At a press conference, Tai announced his decision to close the probe without
filing any charges, saying that staff at the detention facility had found the
system operating irregularly on the morning of July 1 and sent a maintenance
crew to fix it that afternoon.
Maintenance personnel rebooted the entire system, inadvertently causing an
overwrite of the previous video files when new ones started recording, he said.
The blank footage, meanwhile, was caused by an interruption to the power system
rather than tampering, Tai said.
While one of the 16 cameras in the surveillance system malfunctioned, the others
continued recording as normal, indicating that the outage was accidental.
Tai added that footage shows none of the cameras were moved from their
respective positions before, during or after Hung’s confinement, refuting claims
from some critics that they had been deliberately shifted.
Since there was no evidence of tampering, the prosecutor said, he would not file
any charges. His decision is final and cannot be legally challenged or appealed.
Hung’s family yesterday said they could not comprehend the courts’ ruling to
release all four military personnel detained during the investigation on bail
and will appeal the decision.
Early yesterday morning, the Military High Court released former deputy
commander of the 542nd Brigade Colonel Ho Chiang-chung (何江忠) on bail of
NT$300,000, company commander Major Hsu Shin-cheng (徐信正) on NT$250,000 bail and
Staff Sergeant Fan Tso-hsien (范佐憲) on NT$200,000 bail.
The previous evening, Corporal Chen Yi-hsun (陳毅勳), who oversaw Hung’s punishment
and faces the most serious charge of allegedly causing the death of a
subordinate by forcing him to do excessive exercise, was released by the North
Military District Court on bail of NT$150,000.
According to the North Military District Court, a defendant charged with serious
offenses does not necessarily need to be kept in custody.
Chen was released as military prosecutors were still consolidating evidence and
obtaining testimony from witnesses. The court said that there is no risk of Chen
absconding as he is to report for duty as an active-duty serviceman.
Spokesman for the Military High Court, Colonel Ni Yun-shi (倪運喜), said the
remaining three defendants were charged with exceeding regulations in punishing
a subordinate and collectively infringing upon Hung’s personal freedom. This was
not deemed sufficiently serious to warrant them being kept in custody so the
court decided to release them on bail while barring them from leaving the
country.
“They were released on bail ... [the court said] they did not commit serious
crimes. Did my son commit a serious crime and should he have died?” Hung’s
mother tearfully asked yesterday.
Military prosecutors added they could not accept the courts’ ruling and are
appealing the decision with the Military Supreme Court.
Hung collapsed from heatstroke after drill exercises on July 3 and died in
hospital a day later, just three days before he was due to be discharged from
his compulsory military service.
Military prosecutors on Wednesday indicted 18 senior officers and
non-commissioned officers over the Hung’s death, but his family expressed
disappointment, adding that the “motive” for the officers’ actions was not
clearly stated in the indictment.
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