Justice ministry approves over 5,200 exoneration cases

Taipei, Jan. 3 (CNA) The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has so far approved more than 5,200 cases that exonerated victims of judicial and administrative wrongdoing during the period of authoritarian rule in Taiwan, it said Friday.

Since the dissolution of the Transitional Justice Commission (TJC) in May 2022, the MOJ, which took over the role of redressing judicial and administrative wrongdoings, had approved 5,275 exoneration cases as of the end of 2024, the MOJ said in a statement.

The exonerated victims included Cheng Tzu-tsai (鄭自才), an architect and dissident who was part of a conspiracy in 1970 to assassinate Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), then-vice premier and later president of Taiwan.

Born in 1936, Cheng and his brother-in-law Peter Huang (黃文雄) were caught after they carried out an assassination attempt on Chiang during a state visit to New York City in 1970.

They pleaded guilty but jumped bail, and Huang was never recaptured. Cheng was apprehended in Sweden and, after lengthy extradition proceedings, was placed on a plane bound for New York.

Shortly after take‐off, however, Cheng lost consciousness, which prompted the pilot to make an unscheduled landing in Britain, where new extradition proceedings were launched.

It was not until June 20, 1972 that Cheng returned to New York and was sentenced to five years in prison. He served 22 months and was released at the end of 1974.

Cheng returned to Taiwan in June 1991 to attend his father's funeral and was imprisoned for one year, starting in November 1992, for "illegally" entering Taiwan in violation of the 1987 National Security Law.

In 2018, he published a memoir about his assassination attempt on Chiang, and a year later, he formed the Sovereign State for Formosa and Pescadores Party, which he currently chairs.

Cheng also subsequently filed a case with the MOJ over the injustice he faced in Taiwan.

At the time, Cheng had been blacklisted by the then-authoritarian government as an overseas dissident and was restricted from returning to the country, according to the MOJ.

When he was arrested, a court's judgement at the time did not provide any specific details about his method of entry and ruled it as illegal without justification, it said, adding that the decision violated the principles of a free and democratic constitutional order.

Cheng was exonerated by the MOJ in September 2024.

"Returning to one's home is a personal right and freedom, and no one can take that away from me," he told CNA on Friday.

Regarding transitional justice, Cheng expressed hope that those who suffered unfair treatment should receive the compensation they deserve, and that he has already filed a appeal with the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) for that purpose.

A MOJ official who preferred to remain anonymous told CNA that victims who were exonerated are compensated under the Compensation Act for Wrongful Trials on Charges of Sedition and Espionage during the Martial Law Period.

If they feel the compensation is inadequate, they can file a request with the MOI under the Act to Restore Victim's Rights Infringed by Illegal Acts of the State During the Period of Authoritarian Rule, the official explained.

The TJC, active from May 2018 to May 2022, was formed under the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice and responsible for the investigation of actions taken by Taiwan's authoritarian regime between 1945 and 1992.

Following its disbandment, the work of redressing judicial and administrative wrongdoings was taken on by the MOJ, and work involving the removal of authoritarian symbols and exoneration of the victims of political persecution by the MOI.

The Ministry of Culture is now responsible for preserving historical sites of injustice, while the Ministry of Education is tasked with promoting education pertaining to transitional justice and human rights.