Supreme Court upholds verdicts in 2022 Tainan shooting case

Taipei, March 14 (CNA) The Supreme Court has upheld guilty sentences given to six people involved in a submachine gun shooting that occurred during a local election campaign in Tainan in late 2022.

In backing lower court verdicts on Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that it found no fault or discrepancies in the lower court's ruling. Its verdict is final and cannot be appealed.

The individuals included Hung Cheng-chun (洪政軍), Kung Hsiang-chih (孔祥志), Lee Chi-han (李奇漢), and Wang Wen-tsung (王文宗).

Based on information provided by a court document, Hung was given a 10-year prison sentence for illegally possessing a sub-machine gun and going abroad despite being prohibited from doing so, while Kung got eight years for committing the shootings.

Lee got 24 months, and Wang, the suspected mastermind, and two others each received jail sentences ranging from five to six months, which can be commuted to a fine.

The case dates back to Nov. 10, 2022, when Kung conducted two attacks targeting properties owned by former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Central Executive Committee member Kuo Tsai-chin (郭再欽) and former independent Tainan City Councilor Hsieh Tsai-wang (謝財旺).

Kung first fired 58 shots at a business owned by Kuo and then fired another 30 shots at the campaign headquarters of Hsieh's daughter, Hsieh Shu-fan (謝舒凡), who was a DPP candidate for Tainan City Council in the Nov. 26, 2022 local elections.

Neither location was occupied at the time of the shootings, and the attacks did not result in any injuries.

Hung, who was directly involved in arranging the shootings, and Kung, who was recruited by Hung as the triggerman, both fled to China's Fujian province in November 2022.

They were arrested by Chinese police on Jan. 18, 2023 and repatriated to Taiwan in February that same year.

Prosecutors later suspected that Wang, chairman of Ciji Temple in Tainan's Syuejia District, was the mastermind behind the shootings, but the court acquitted him of the charge because of insufficient evidence.

Instead, Wang was given a light sentence for the crime of harboring a fugitive.

Lee was found to have driven Kung, an acquaintance, and help him change clothes after the shooting.

The involved suspects were indicted by Tainan prosecutors in April 2023, with the first trial heard by the Tainan District Court in February 2024.

Due to a subsequent appeal, the case was later reviewed by the Taiwan High Court's Tainan branch in November 2024.