Family of murdered Malaysian student criticizes death penalty ruling

Kaohsiung, Jan. 29 (CNA) The mother of a Malaysian university student murdered in Taiwan in 2020 on Thursday criticized a court ruling that overturned an earlier death sentence handed to her daughter's killer.

In its latest ruling, the Taiwan High Court Kaohsiung Branch overturned the death sentence, saying the case did not meet the legal threshold of the "most serious offense" required for capital punishment under a 2024 Constitutional Court ruling.

The ruling is subject to appeal.

In a statement issued the media later in the day, the victim's mother said she could neither accept nor understand the court's reasoning.

The victim's mother said the decision placed the possibility of rehabilitation above professionally assessed risks of reoffending in a brutal rape and murder case.

She noted that while the court acknowledged the brutality of the crime, psychiatric assessments had identified Liang as posing a high risk of recidivism and as being difficult to rehabilitate in the short term. Despite this, she said, the ruling treated the expectation of future rehabilitation as a decisive factor in sparing him the harshest punishment.

The victim's mother questioned how a case involving escalating violence, the use of lethal tools and professional warnings of a high risk of reoffending could still fail to qualify as the most serious crime under the law.

She stressed that she was not asking the courts to act on emotion or to deny the defendant's right to due process, but urged the judiciary to reflect on whether public safety and the protection of potential victims were being given sufficient weight in sentencing decisions.

Recalling her daughter's final moments, she said the fear, pain and helplessness her child endured were not abstract details in a legal judgment, but lasting trauma for her family.

She said the case was not only a personal tragedy, but a question the justice system must confront.

Liang Yu-chih (梁育誌), convicted of raping and murdering the Malaysian student in 2020, had previously been sentenced to death in the first trial, the second trial and a retrial.

The court cited a lack of proven premeditated murder and said rehabilitation remained possible through life imprisonment combined with psychological treatment.