President Lai pardons elderly mother convicted of killing disabled son

Taipei, Feb. 12 (CNA) President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) on Thursday approved a special pardon exempting a woman in her 80s convicted of killing her profoundly disabled son from serving time in prison.

In a news release, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said President Lai, after carefully reviewing the case, granted a pardon that exempts the woman, Lin Liu Lung-tzu (林劉龍子), from serving her sentence while acknowledging her conviction, citing the enduring circumstances she faced.

As defined by Article 3 of the Amnesty Act, there are two kinds of amnesty. The first involves exempting an offender from execution of a punishment, while the second involves declaring the punishment to be invalid.

Kuo said Lin Liu had spent more than 50 years caring for her son. In April 2023, she was diagnosed with COVID-19, which caused her physical and mental health to deteriorate rapidly. Facing the high-pressure situation of being elderly and unable to care for her severely disabled son, the tragic incident occurred the following month.

According to police at the time, Lin Liu covered her son's mouth and nose with tape, resulting in his suffocation and death in May 2023.

Following judicial proceedings, the Taipei District Court sentenced her to two years and six months in prison. The case was finalized on Jan. 16 this year.

Kuo said the case had drawn significant public attention and widespread sympathy, with the court and several legislators recommending that the president consider a pardon. The Ministry of Justice, the authority responsible for administering the Amnesty Act, also concluded that, given the circumstances, there was no practical need to carry out the sentence.

The pardon was approved by Lai under Article 40 of the Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan), which stipulates that the president shall, in accordance with law, exercise the power to grant amnesties, pardons, remissions of sentences, and restitution of civil rights, Kuo added.

A total of nine special pardons have been issued by past and current presidents in Taiwan, including President Lai's pardon of Lin Liu.

In 2021, former President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) also granted a pardon to Tama Talum, an Indigenous Bunun man who had been controversially sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on illegal hunting charges in a case that reached Taiwan's Constitutional Court earlier that year.