Chinese captain's 26 year sentence for murder on the high seas upheld

Taipei, Jan. 23 (CNA) The Taiwan Supreme Court has upheld a 26 year sentence handed down to a Chinese boat captain found guilty of killing four men off the coast of Somalia in 2012.

This decision by Taiwan's highest court represents the final ruling in the case, which has seen nine major judgments since 2021.

Captured on video that was later shared online, the brutal murders attracted international media attention, including a front page article in the New York Times and a short documentary by Vice News.

Wang Fengyu (汪峰裕), acting captain of the Kaohsiung-registered fishing vessel Ping Shin No. 101 (屏新101號), was involved in the deaths of four men about 595 kilometers southeast of the Somali capital of Mogadishu, according to court documents issued by the Taiwan High Court.

The four victims, whom Wang said he believed to be Somali pirates, was sailing near Wang's vessel at around midday on Sept. 29, 2012.

However, they were knocked overboard when another ship, the nationality of which remains unclear, collided with their small wooden fishing boat, the court documents said.

Wang then ordered one of two private security guards on his ship to shoot the four men with automatic rifles as they languished in the water, and even fired a gun himself, video footage seen by the court showed.

Neither the bodies of the victims nor the identities of the armed security personnel aboard Wang's vessel have been located or identified.

After video footage of the incident taken by a crew member on Wang's vessel made international headlines, Taiwanese authorities issued an arrest warrant for the captain in 2018.

In 2020, Wang was arrested at the Port of Kaohsiung when he landed there on a Seychelles-registered vessel on Aug. 22, and was indicted by the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office for suspected murder on Oct. 8.

Court documents detail multiple trials, appeals and retrials over the past four years relating to homicide and firearm-related offenses.

In the first trial of the case on Jan. 29, 2021, the Kaohsiung District Court sentenced Wang to 26 years for four counts of murder. Following an appeal, the Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch upheld the sentence on May 18, 2021.

However, the Taiwan Supreme Court on Aug. 4, 2021 ordered the High Court Kaohsiung Branch to hold a retrial to clarify certain facts in the case, including whether Wang had ordered the private security staff to open fire.

The Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch found in its first retrial on June 16, 2022, that Wang had apparently only ordered the killing of one of the victims, and reduced the sentence to 13 years for one count of first degree murder.

On Oct. 6, 2022, the Taiwan Supreme Court again ordered a retrial, citing issues with the verdict, held by the Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch on Oct. 25, 2023, which again sentenced Wang to 13 years. However, the Supreme Court ordered a further retrial on Jan. 25, 2024, citing procedural irregularities and other issues with the verdict.

In its third and final retrial of the case on Nov. 7, 2024, the Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch sentenced Wang to 26 years in prison for being criminally responsible for the deaths of the four victims.

The Supreme Court's latest decision may not be appealed.