Where is Human Rights When Prosecutors, Police, and Investigation Bureaus Torture Suspects to Extract Confessions and Falsify Records? "Audio-Video Recording of Everything is the Only Way to Reveal Everything" Press Conference

Introduction to the Chang Chih-hui Case

In 1997, Ch'en Chin-hsing, Lin Ch'un-sheng, and Kao T'ien-min jointly kidnapped Pai Ping-bing's daughter, Pai Hsiao-yen. Chang Chih-hui, the brother-in-law of Ch'en Chin-hsing, was accused of aiding and abetting Ch'en and his accomplices. During the retrial (second remand), although the collegiate panel acquitted Chang Chih-hui pursuant to Article 156, Paragraph 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which stipulates that "a defendant's confession may not serve as the sole evidence of a crime," the Supreme Court once again rescinded the retrial verdict on March 13 of this year (2003) and remanded the case for further proceedings. Additionally, regarding the Taipei Investigation Division's illegal interrogation of Chang Chih-hui, the Control Yuan has completed an investigation report requesting the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau to independently penalize the personnel involved.

Excerpt from the Taiwan High Court Criminal Examination Record (Chang Chih-hui Case)

May 24, 1997, 22:43:35~22:50:50, Circumstances of Chang Chih-hui being questioned at the Investigation Division (Examined by the Taiwan High Court on July 2, 1999, at 9:30 AM in the 4th Criminal Courtroom)

Four investigation division personnel jointly used intimidation, threats, verbal abuse, and enticement to gradually compel Chang Chih-hui to confess to aiding Ch'en Chin-hsing (Excerpt)

Interrogator in white: referred to as "White"
Interrogator in red: referred to as "Red"
Interrogator in blue: referred to as "Blue"
Interrogator in yellow: referred to as "Yellow"
Defendant Chang Chih-hui: referred to as "Hui"

White: If you are willing to tell the truth, everyone is your friend, and we will definitely try our best to help you. Whatever can be petitioned for at the court, we will definitely help you petition for it. I am telling you, once you walk out of this front door, truly no one will be willing to listen to you. As for this case, sooner or later all three of them will be caught, they cannot escape. They have no money, and no one dares to give them a ride. To put it bluntly, if anyone tries to help them smuggle out right now, people will be the first to turn them in to collect the thirty million reward. Smuggling along the Taiwan coast is starving right now, nobody can do it anymore.
Red: Everyone's going crazy.
White: Anyone who dares to help them escape will be a public enemy. These guys really shouldn't bother mixing in society anymore, the police are going to risk their lives.
Red: The word getting out would be horrific too.
White: Normally the police take things from these guys, eat what they eat, drink what they drink, but when trouble strikes, they turn their backs and refuse to recognize anyone. Don't think about that routine, don't think about that routine, they have no ability to run out. One day, two days, three days, four days, they'll be caught eventually.
Red: Dead end.
White: You wait for him to be caught, your family will already be completely ruined, you'll die faster than him, and your sister will have already died before him. This is simply not a calculation you can win. If you want to gamble, you have to gamble when you have a chance. When there is no evidence, nothing unfavorable to you, you shouldn't confess—you're truly a fool. But look at what is laid out before you: this society has already held two protest marches! How could your sister possibly survive? If none of you step forward, if your own family doesn't reflect, wake up, and examine yourselves, how can society let you off? Even if the police are incompetent today and fail to catch them in one or two months, fine, won't people seek revenge on you? It's really fast, instant karma. If I were Pai Ping-bing today, I'd be watching to see if you police can save face. If you can't save face, I'll rely on myself! Can you move? Where are you going to walk to? They can flee, they can hide in the Central Mountain Range—can you hide in the Central Mountain Range? You have a child, you're over 21 years old, do you want to be hacked to pieces and thrown into a drainage ditch? You'll have to go pick up the pieces, fish them out, and identify them at the mortuary! What a tragic scene that is! You think it won't happen? Pai Ping-bing has no connections with the underworld? Don't be too naive, how many gang leaders are sharpening their fists right now.
Red: Did you hear Yang Teng-k'uei talking, shouting across the sea? Yang Teng-k'uei, you know him? Do you know who Pai Hsiao-yen's father is? Do you know? Underworld, Japan's Yamaguchi-gumi, do you know who his uncle is?
White: And you're not afraid! You're too young, you're not afraid, but when people come knocking at your door one day, crying to your father and mother won't bring any response.
Red: They're all waiting for us.
White: You'd rather have us lock you up; other people's patience is running out too.
Red: You haven't even thought about this problem.
White: While you're here we can still talk with you. Once you enter the police station, can you walk out of there in 'one piece'? They will grind you down until you are completely finished. Don't think about entering prison, don't think you can walk out of the detention center alive either. The underworld's influence inside is even faster. Don't get gang-raped in there within three days, and hacked to pieces the day after tomorrow—you won't even know how you died.
Red: There's another problem.
White: Regarding the Pai Hsiao-yen case, the Ministry of Justice has now changed parole eligibility from one-third to one-half, raising the threshold for parole. Everyone is venting their resentment on you people, saying you caused this. If you go in, I guarantee you'll want to die every single day, believe it or not!
White: There are people in society willing to buy your head.
Blue: Tell us about the things at Takuan Road.
White: If you don't talk, we'll all be too lazy to deal with you either, and we'll just transfer you, alright?
Blue: Did you hear that? Did you hear that?
Hui: Yes.
Blue: Explain it clearly! (Loudly)
Yellow: Just tell us the whole process.
White: How you helped them find a place and helped support them between the 16th and the 29th.
Hui: 16th to the 29th?
Red: What about the 28th?
Hui: The 28th, that day, that day.
White: Don't lie to us.
Red: On the evening of the 28th, at your house, they went to look for you.
Hui: At my house?
Red: The few of them ran to your house to look for you. Otherwise they called you, or phoned you.
Blue: People clearly saw you drive the driving school vehicle to buy breakfast.
White: You say that didn't happen? Then where did you buy it? Where did you buy it?
Hui: On the 28th, my breakfast, I bought it to eat at home.
Blue: Eat at home what?
Hui: That was May 2nd, I didn't go on May 2nd.
Blue: Where is the driving school, you went there to buy breakfast to eat?
Hui: After getting off work, that was my last day getting off work, going to work.
Red: What breakfast are you buying after getting off work?
Hui: I just came back that morning, woke up in the morning and was hungry.
Red: Fine, we won't drag out those things. Now the most important thing is your problem. What kind of result do you hope for? I keep emphasizing this issue. Just now our colleague mentioned the underworld issue. Because this case has made it impossible for many people to survive, you know? Smugglers can't survive, and other underworld elements are all... People are pinning the blame on you guys. Pai Ping-bing is very familiar with both the underworld and the police, having acted for so many years. She might not be able to find you, but the underworld is careful—do you dare say they won't find you? It's hard to say.
White: They don't even need to find you; people will step up for this kind of thing.
Red: Pai Ping-bing, doesn't even need much, just one million, and you'll be taken care of.
White: Does your wife go to work?
Hui: ....
White: Would you like to be holding your wife's hand in a drainage ditch that day, just like that, stripped bare by someone, with your neck twisted askew, your tongue sticking out, your eyes popping out, and having been raped? Do you want that? Do you want that to happen to your family? Do you want to be holding your mother's corpse in a large drainage ditch that day, hacked to pieces by someone?

May 26, 1997, 11:34:05~11:36:00, Chang Chih-hui questioned at the Taipei Investigation Division (Examined by the High Court on July 7, 1999, at 17:30 in the 1st Criminal Courtroom)

Interrogator in red: referred to as Red
Another interrogator: referred to as B
Hui: (Chang Chih-hui kneels before Section Chief Su)
Red: What are you kneeling for? Sit up.
B: Get up, sit up, sit up.
Red: Sit up.
Hui: (Crying, sits on the chair)
Red: Have you seen your sister?
Hui: Yes.
Red: Did you ask her what kind of treatment she received at the police station? Did you ask her?
Hui: Yes.
Red: What did she say?
Hui: ...
Red: Did she tell you how miserable it was?
Red: Is what we told you the truth? Did we tell you any lies?
Hui: No.
Red: What did she say?
Hui: She said she came to the Investigation Division...
Red: What did she say?
Red: Move closer.
Red: What did she say?
Hui: She said...
Red: Who told her to speak? Your sister did.
B: His sister just had a meal, she should have talked with him a bit.
Red: Oh, you saw it. Yesterday we took you, we were very covert, right? The police followed us later and brought reporters, which clearly means they want your whole family to die! Isn't that right? We didn't want people to know about this matter, right? We were afraid the underworld behind the scenes would retaliate against you, right? Then look at what you should do—your wife, your child. Yesterday when Pai Ping-bing saw that you had funded him, she was very furious.

May 28, 1997, 17:21:30~17:23:40, Chang Chih-hui questioned at the Taipei Investigation Division (Examined by the Taiwan High Court on May 21, 1999, at 10:00 in the 3rd Criminal Courtroom)

Defendant Chang Chih-hui: referred to as "Hui"
Interrogator in white: referred to as "A"
Interrogator in blue: referred to as "B"
Another interrogator: referred to as "C"

A: Hurry up and explain clearly, what on earth is going on, what is the whole process?
B: You, you're so foolish.
C: You! If you flip-flop again now, just flip-flop on everything, it doesn't matter! Even that you never met at all, flip-flop on all of it, we simply won't pay attention to you, and the case will be closed, right? We won't ask about this anymore, let the police ask however they want. Do you still get to sit like this with the police? Do you think you can still sit here and talk to the police like this? The kind of plots played in movies are real, not fake, and even worse! Are you looking to die? You still want to give me this flip-flopping! The truth is only one, and you're giving me an ABC version, and not just that, there's even DE, from A-cup to D-cup, there are so many versions, so many versions.
A: Right now, do you not want your wife anymore? Your children anymore? Your mother anymore?
C: But I don't care about you anymore. If purely you and me... Fine, don't ask anymore, it's over. You have nothing, completely deny it, completely deny it, that's fine. Then yesterday you already made conclusive testimony, you've read every page of the record, signed every page—does that count or not? Let's consider it counts, right? Relying just on this to sentence you, is this enough?
A: Enough.
C: You've already confessed, you've already surrendered, and what's more, damn it, it matches the crime scene. Things are big, you don't even know! If it didn't match, nothing more needs to be said. But you described what kind of underwear Pai Hsiao-yen was wearing, and everything else, plus the steel wire she used to tie her fingers—under these circumstances, everything matches, everything is the same. If you really wanted me to make this up, I couldn't even make it up. I suggest you go become a novelist next time. (C slaps Chang Chih-hui across the face twice consecutively)

May 28, 1997, 19:40:00~19:40:11, Chang Chih-hui questioned at the Taipei Investigation Division (Examined by the Taiwan High Court on May 21, 1999, at 10:00 in the 3rd Criminal Courtroom)

C: If there was assistance, then there was assistance. If you were the only one who assisted, then you were the only one who assisted. Why are you dragging Tsou Huo-jung into this? You're going to get yourself killed this way! You've offended everyone completely, and your wife doesn't want you either. I'm not playing with you anymore! (C stands up and lightly strikes Chang Chih-hui three times)

May 28, 1997, 19:46:10~19:46:50, Chang Chih-hui questioned at the Taipei Investigation Division (Examined by the Taiwan High Court on May 21, 1999, at 10:00 in the 3rd Criminal Courtroom)

C: I just told you to look at Pai Hsiao-yen, or else get yourself looked at until you're dead. (C presses Chang Chih-hui's neck, pulls his clothes, and gently pushes his face) So later when they call to say something happened at the company, it's 80% likely to be some good work you did!
Hui: On the 20th?
C: In the early morning of the 20th! They're calling, something happened at the company, come back quickly. Was it you watching Pai Hsiao-yen that caused trouble? (C pulls Chang Chih-hui's clothes)
Hui: On the 20th, something happened at the company?
C: I'm not going to bother with you anymore, I don't care about you anymore, I'll say whatever I want. Right now I... are you interested in Pai Hsiao-yen? (C pushes Chang Chih-hui)

Introduction to the Cases of Su Chien-ho, Liu Bing-lang, Chuang Lin-xun, and Others

There was a massive discrepancy between the records of the prosecutor's initial questioning of Su Chien-ho and the other two defendants at the Hsichih Precinct in 1991 and the actual contents of the interrogation audio tape. It was only during the retrial of the Su case over two years ago that the collegiate panel examined the interrogation audio tape for the first time. On January 13 of this year, citing a lack of evidence in the entire case, the collegiate panel acquitted Su Chien-ho and the other two defendants and ordered their release in court. Currently, the High Prosecutors Office has appealed this case to the Supreme Court.

Taiwan Taipei District Prosecutors Office, 1991, Hsi-Tzu Character No. 234 (Examination Record and Audio Tape Transcript - Liu Bing-lang Part)

1. Contents of the Record

Male, born May 15, 1972, native of Keelung City, residing at No. 5, Lane 89, Tungshin St., Keelung City, ID: C120243979

Q: Occupation?
A: None.
Q: Are your statements given to the police truthful?
A: Not truthful. I did not participate. After finishing our game of pool, we returned directly to Keelung.

2. Contents of the Audio Tape

26:39 Unclear (Sound of door opening and closing)
26:43 Ts'u Chi-chen: Liu Bing-lang, where do you live?
26:44 Liu Bing-lang: Keelung.
26:45 Ts'u Chi-chen: Keelung, Tung-hsing Street, is that right?
26:46 Liu Bing-lang: Right.
26:36 Unclear (Sound of talking)
26:47 Ts'u Chi-chen: What number?
26:48 Liu Bing-lang: Lane 89.
26:49 Ts'u Chi-chen: Number (unclear). What is your job?
26:49 Unclear (Sound of door opening and closing)
26:52 Liu Bing-lang: No job.
26:53 Ts'u Chi-chen: No job.
26:54 Liu Bing-lang: Taking classes at a cram school.
26:55 Unclear (Sound of door opening and closing)
26:56 Ts'u Chi-chen: We say, living in this world, even though you are young and made a mistake, it's a very simple principle—you understand it too, right? That is relying on our conscience! Standing upright between heaven and earth, we rely on our conscience! People inevitably make mistakes; sometimes they make small mistakes, sometimes big mistakes. Regardless of whether it's a small mistake or a big mistake, there will be pressure in your heart. If you speak it out, sometimes small mistakes don't matter under the law, while sometimes what you committed has to do with the law. If you speak the matter out, the pressure on your conscience will be a little less, and you will have an account to give to the victims or to society, and the law will naturally consider giving you a chance at self-reform. For example, when you were young at home, if you secretly stole five or ten NT dollars from your parents and they found out, they would scold you a bit, and once you admitted your wrongdoing that would be it. If you didn't admit it, your parents would still make you kneel as punishment and discipline you, right? The principle is the same, it's very simple! The law in society is the same too! Regardless of whether it's a big or small matter, if you explain it clearly, the law will likewise consider giving you a chance at self-reform. If you flip-flop and drag other matters into it, then... then the law might also refuse to give you a chance due to your bad post-offense attitude, and there's nothing that can be done about that. Anyway, everything depends on your conscience! Matters have already reached this point. Are the things you said truthful or not? You spoke twice, didn't you? Interrogations were conducted twice, you saw them all, right? Did they show them to you?
28:09 Unclear (Sound of rustling paper)
28:18 Ts'u Chi-chen: Are the things you said truthful or not? You spoke twice, didn't you? Interrogations were conducted twice, you saw them all, right? Did they show them to you? (Liu Bing-lang tells the prosecutor he did not see the two police interrogation records; this was not recorded in the prosecutor's investigative record.)
28:27 Liu Bing-lang: No.
28:28 Ts'u Chi-chen: No. Then are the things you said truthful or not? This course of events you described, starting from the early morning hours of the 24th, coming back from Disney Amusement Park... Were you holding a machete? Or a kitchen knife?
28:42 Liu Bing-lang: What I said those two times, some parts were wrong.
28:45 Ts'u Chi-chen: Then are you... It doesn't matter! If there are mistakes you can state them. I am asking you! Were you holding a machete? Or a kitchen knife? There are two kinds of knives in total.
28:54 Liu Bing-lang: What I want to say is, I didn't participate at all!
28:56 Ts'u Chi-chen: You didn't participate at all!
28:57 Liu Bing-lang: Right.
28:58 Ts'u Chi-chen: Then everything you said was made up as a story? (Liu Bing-lang tells the prosecutor that the records made at the police station were because he was afraid of being beaten; this was not recorded in the prosecutor's investigative record.)
29:00 Liu Bing-lang: No! I was afraid of being beaten!
29:02 Ts'u Chi-chen: You were afraid of being beaten! Then who said you had a part in it? Who said you had a part in it?
29:09 Liu Bing-lang: No, it was those police officers who asked me...
29:12 Ts'u Chi-chen: Then who said? Who said you participated? Who said you had a part? Was it Wang Wen-hsiao who dragged you into it, is that so?
29:17 Liu Bing-lang: Wang Wen-chung!
29:18 Ts'u Chi-chen: Wang Wen-chung? Wang Wen-hsiao?
29:19 Liu Bing-lang: Wang Wen-chung!
29:20 Ts'u Chi-chen: Wang Wen-chung! Then you guys just went to steal, is that right?
29:23 Liu Bing-lang: No! I didn't participate!
29:25 Ts'u Chi-chen: Didn't participate! Then what time did you guys play pool until that day?
29:29 Liu Bing-lang: We played pool until past two o'clock? After playing until past two o'clock we went to Keelung. We went to Keelung, those people... Su Chien-ho asked us if we wanted to go to Railway Street? I said okay, so we went.
29:44 Ts'u Chi-chen: To do what? To look for girls?
29:47 Liu Bing-lang: Right.
29:47 Ts'u Chi-chen: You didn't have money?
29:48 Liu Bing-lang: Yes, we did!
29:50 Ts'u Chi-chen: It was precisely because you didn't have money that you wanted to steal, right?
29:53 Liu Bing-lang: No, we had money! Then Wang Wen-chung said he didn't want to go, so we told him to wait for us at the amusement park! After a little while I came out first, and I went to look for him... about ten minutes later...
30:09 Ts'u Chi-chen: Put the tape... bring Wang Wen-chung over again, that Wang Wen-chung...
30:13 Unclear (Pressed PAUSE)