Taiwan defends executions of five convicts

Mar 6, 2011, 2:55 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan's government on Sunday defended the weekend executions of five convicts despite protests at home and abroad.

Presidential spokesman Lo Chih-chiang said the Justice Ministry was bound to carry out court-ordered death sentences.

'As the Republic of China operates under the rule of law, except for cases meriting postponement of executions, the government must follow the law in formulating its policies and carry out its tasks,' he said. Republic of China is the official title of Taiwan.

After carrying out four death sentences in April last year, Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu on Friday signed orders to execute five convicts, prompting criticism at home and abroad.

Amnesty International condemned Taiwan for the executions of the five inmates who had been separately sentenced to death for serious crimes committed between 1988 and 2005.

'The Taiwanese authorities have repeatedly stated their intention to abolish the death penalty,' Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia Pacific director, said. 'But they have - yet again - acted contrary to their own commitments and against the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty,'

Last month, President Ma Ying-jeou had to apologise for the wrongful execution of a soldier convicted of rape in 1977 but who was later found to be not guilty, Zarife said.

On Friday, the German Foreign Ministry summoned Wei Wu-lien, Taiwan's representative in Berlin, to explain the island's policy.

Justice Ministry spokesman Huang Kuan-yun said two UN human rights covenants signed by Taipei stipulate the right to life, but do not specifically demand the renunciation of capital punishment.

'Besides, in seeking penalty for a convict, in recent years, both prosecutors and judges have largely cut the use of capital punishment,' Huang said.

The debate over whether to abolish death sentence has been going on for at least a decade on the island, but Taiwanese remain divided on the issue.

Former justice minister Wang Ching-feng, who supported abolition, resigned after refusing to sign orders to execute four convicts last year.

Taiwan currently has 40 convicts on death row.

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