AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

slavery. Many women and girls were
subjected to sexual violence, rape and other
torture. Women and girls caught trying to
escape were gang-raped or otherwise
tortured or harshly punished; one woman
said that the fighter who had bought her
killed several of her children and repeatedly
raped her after she had tried to flee.
DEATH PENALTY
The death penalty remained in force for
many offences. The authorities disclosed little
information about death sentences and no
information on executions.
1. “It breaks the human”: Torture, disease and death in Syria’s prisons
(MDE 24/4508/2016)
TAIWAN
Taiwan
Head of state: Tsai Ing-wen (replaced Ma Ying-jeou
in May)
Head of government: Lin Chuan (replaced Mao Chi-kuo
in May)
Elections in January resulted in Tsai Ingwen
of the Democratic Progressive Party
(DPP) becoming the country’s first woman
President. There were some positive
developments in three longstanding death
penalty cases but several violent incidents
sparked public calls for retaining the
punishment. The new government decided
to drop charges against more than 100
protesters from the 2014 “Sunflower
Movement”. The same-sex couple
relationship register was extended to 10
municipalities and counties. The Legislative
Yuan’s judicial committee passed
amendments to the Civil Code proposed by
two DPP legislators, a step towards
legalizing same-sex marriage.
FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY
On 23 May, Prime Minister Lin Chuan
announced that the new cabinet was
dropping criminal charges against 126
protesters. He stated that the previous
government’s decision to charge the
protesters was a “political reaction” to the
demonstration instead of merely a “legal
case”. In March 2014, student-led protests
against the Cross-Strait Services Trade
Agreement between Taiwan and China,
referred to as the “Sunflower Movement”,
had led to 24 days of demonstrations, the
occupation of the Legislative Yuan (Taiwan’s
parliament), and a 10-hour occupation of the
Executive Yuan, the government offices.
DEATH PENALTY
Two weeks before the previous government
ended its term in May, the Taichung Branch
of the Taiwan High Court released Cheng
Hsing-tse on bail pending a retrial. He had
served 14 years in prison after he was
convicted of the murder of a police officer
during an exchange of gunfire at a karaoke
parlour in Taichung in 2002. The Prosecutor-
General’s office applied for a retrial in March,
citing new evidence which raised doubts
about his conviction. This was the first retrial
sought in a case where the final Supreme
Court’s ruling upheld the death sentence.
In July 2016, the Prosecutor-General
applied for an extraordinary appeal for Chiou
Ho-shun. He had been imprisoned since
1989, the longest-serving death row inmate
in modern Taiwan history. The application
cited the failure of previous courts to omit
evidence from a coerced “confession”. Chiou
Ho-shun was tortured in custody and forced
to “confess” before being found guilty of
robbery, kidnapping and murder.
On 13 October, the Supreme Court upheld
the High Court’s decision to acquit Hsu Tzichiang,
who had repeatedly appealed against
his convictions for kidnapping, extortion and
murder in 1995.
REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS
The Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration
Committee passed a second reading of a
refugee bill on 14 July. It would be the first
such law in Taiwan if passed, and may allow
asylum-seekers from mainland China to
apply for political asylum in Taiwan.
354 Amnesty International Report 2016/17