Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) Vice President Lai Ching-te on Monday issued certificates of exoneration to family members of two individuals who were unjustly convicted during Taiwan's Martial Law period officially wiping out their criminal records.
Lai presented the certificates to the sons of Tu Hsiao-sheng, an indigenous Tsou tribesman, and Liao Li-chuan, who were wrongfully sentenced in 1954 to 17 and 10 years in prison, respectively, for their involvement in a treason case involving indigenous leaders Tang Shou-jen and Kao Yi-sheng, who were fighting for autonomy for indigenous people in the Alishan area at that time.
Among the total of nine involved in the 1954 case, Tang, Kao and four others were executed and one was sentenced to life imprisonment, all on treason charges, while Tu and Liao were charged with the offenses of criminal conversion and corruption.
Aside from Tu and Liao, the others involved in the case have already been exonerated and compensated by the government in 2000 in accordance with the Compensation Act for Wrongful Trial on Charges of Sedition and Espionage during the Martial Law Period.
However, the family members of Tu and Liao were unable to file for government compensation as the Act only applies to those who were wrongfully tried on charges of sedition and espionage during the Martial Law period from 1949 to 1987 under the former authoritarian Kuomintang (KMT) regime.
In 2019, Tu and Liao's sons asked the Transitional Justice Commission (TJC), which was formed in May 2018 to declassify political archives, conduct investigations and deliver restitution to victims during the Martial Law period, to re-investigate their fathers' cases.
Following its investigation, the TJC on July 29 officially exonerated the criminal charges on Tu and Liao.
In his speech, Lai said Tu's exoneration is significant because it is the first exoneration since the founding of the TJC that involves indigenous Taiwanese people charged with offenses other than sedition and espionage.
"This shows that all people, regardless of their ethnicity, were subjected to suppression during the authoritarian regime," he said.
Lai pledged that the government will continue to pursue transitional justice to bring justice to those political victims whose reputations were damaged through unfair trials during the martial law period.
