Statement Regarding Today's Taiwan High Court Ruling Dismissing the Motion for Retrial Filed by Chiou Ho-shun and Others

Regarding today's (June 22) Taiwan High Court ruling dismissing the motion for retrial filed by Chiou Ho-shun and others, our Foundation issues the following statement:

1. The court is treating human lives with reckless disregard:
   • Chiou Ho-shun was indeed subjected to torture, and police officers were convicted as a result. His death sentence has been finalized, and execution could be carried out at any time.
   • There are over 500 case files in this case. Had the High Court reviewed and examined the files, it would have been impossible to do so in just 12 days.
   • Taking only 12 days means the files were not requested and reviewed, and the motion was dismissed outright—this is utterly perfunctory. That the court treats human lives with reckless disregard and complete indifference is heartbreaking.
2. Witnesses pointed out that they personally heard screams:
   • Two retired police officers clearly stated that while assisting the Taipei City Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division in handling the case, they repeatedly heard screams and the sounds of someone being beaten. Having heard the screams, a retrial proceeding should be initiated to investigate. (Certain media outlets appear to have misunderstood; the ruling text did not state that the two retired police officers' accounts were "hearsay." In fact, they heard them with their own ears.)
   • Furthermore, when combined with the audio recordings investigated during the High Court's 11th remand trial of the Criminal Investigation Division officers "boasting about their sophisticated torture methods" (a link is available on our Foundation's homepage), it even more strongly proves the extremely high probability that Chiou Ho-shun and others were tortured.
   • These new facts and new evidence, when comprehensively evaluated together with the original case files and evidence, are sufficient to shake the foundational basis of the original final judgment—namely, that "the prosecutor-facing confession transcripts possess evidentiary admissibility." It is capable of overturning the original final judgment.
3. Only by initiating a retrial can the truth be uncovered:
   • All retrials involve presenting new evidence to shake the original investigative findings. The primary reasoning of the High Court's ruling this time—that the torture aspect has already been investigated and requires no further investigation—is fundamentally absurd in its logic.
   • If the statements of the two police officers, after being investigated through court hearings, are proven to be true, there is a possibility of overturning the original final judgment. The High Court's perfunctory dismissal of the motion for retrial entirely violates the legal provisions governing retrials.

Statement Contact

Judicial Reform Foundation Executive Director, Attorney Kao Jung-chih 02-25231178