"Full Recording for Full Exposure" Press Conference: Where Are Human Rights When Prosecutors, Police, and Investigation Bureaus Extort Confessions through Torture and Produce False Records?

Only by fully implementing audio and video recording throughout interrogation processes and ensuring detailed, accurate written records can illegal investigative methods be brought to light!

For a long time, rumors have persisted that prosecutors, police, and investigation bureau agents frequently use improper methods—such as intimidation, threats, coercion, verbal abuse, and even physical assault—to obtain statements or testimony during case investigations. To highlight the severity of this issue, the Judicial Reform Foundation and 18 other civic groups held a press conference this morning (April 18) entitled "Full Recording for Full Exposure," making public a live interrogation video of illegal interrogation practices by police and investigation bureau personnel. They also put forward multiple demands, including that prosecutors, police, and investigation bureaus record interrogations in their entirety on audio and video, that judges strengthen the verification of interrogation audio and video recordings, and that courts install relevant equipment for duplicating interrogation audio and video tapes. These measures aim to expose illegal investigative methods used by prosecutors, police, and investigation agents, thereby returning the criminal procedure system to the proper track of safeguarding human rights.

As shown in the video played at the press conference, Chang Chih-hui (brother-in-law of Ch'en Chin-hsing), who was accused in 1997 of involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Pai Hsiao-yen, was subjected to continuous intimidation, verbal abuse, threats, trickery, pulling, pushing, and slaps by multiple investigators during his interrogation at the Taipei Investigation Division. Among these instances, an investigator "warned" Chang Chih-hui: "You entered a police station, do you think you can come out of here 'in one piece'?", "Have you seen your sister? ... Did you ask her what kind of treatment she is receiving at the police station? ... Did she tell you how miserable it is?", "... The police still let you sit like this? Do you think you can still sit here and talk to the police like this? The scenes shown in movies are all true, not fake, and even worse. You are asking for death, and you still dare to flip back and forth on us [Note: referring to retracting confessions]..." [Appendix 1], implying that the police's torture and confession-extortion methods were even worse than those of the Investigation Bureau! In response, Lin Yung-sung, a director of the JRF, stated: "Seeing such appalling interrogation attitudes from law enforcement officers, one cannot help but ask: where are the human rights of criminal defendants?!"

In addition, the press conference also released the original written record from when Prosecutor Ts'u Chi-chen first interrogated Liu Bing-lang after the 1991 Hsichih couple murder case, along with the results of the Taiwan High Court retrial collegiate bench's verification of the audio recording [Appendix 2]. As the audio recording shows, although Liu Bing-lang repeatedly denied the crime at the time and told the prosecutor that he had never seen the two police interrogation records, and that his previous statements to the police admitting participation were due to fear of being beaten, etc.; nevertheless, the court clerk at the time failed to record these circumstances—which could affect the voluntariness of the defendant's confession—in the written record, and the prosecutor did not immediately investigate the authenticity of the police interrogation record or the defendant's defense of torture. Regarding this, Su Yu-ch'en, Chairperson of the Human Rights Protection Committee of the Taiwan Bar Association, remarked: "No wonder! When even the original interrogation records are problematic, how can subsequent trial procedures not go wrong?"

JRF Director Lin Yung-sung pointed out that although the individual interrogation audio and video recording cases cited at the press conference happened to take place in the 1990s, "in reality, the situations of prosecutors, police, and investigation agents extorting confessions through torture and producing false records still widely persist today and cannot be overlooked." Therefore, the JRF and other groups put forward the following five demands:

1. Prosecutors, police, and investigation bureaus should fully implement audio and video recording throughout the interrogation process.
2. Prosecutors, police, and investigation bureaus should ensure that interrogation records are detailed and accurate.
3. When lawyers learn that clients dispute the authenticity of interrogation records, they should apply for judges to examine the relevant audio and video recordings.
4. When judges learn that lawyers need to examine interrogation audio and video recordings, they should grant lawyers permission to duplicate (copy) the relevant audio and video recordings.
5. The Judicial Yuan should urge courts at all levels to install equipment for duplicating audio and video recordings so that lawyers and parties may use them for a fee.

This press conference was co-hosted by the Judicial Reform Foundation, Taiwan Bar Association, Taiwan Police Reform Association, and the Chinese Association of Police Administration, with 14 local bar associations including the Taipei Bar Association acting as co-organizers. The attending representatives included JRF Director Lin Yung-sung, Taiwan Bar Association Human Rights Protection Committee Chairperson Su Yu-ch'en, Police Reform Association Spokesperson Ma Tsai-ch'in, and Chinese Association of Police Administration Secretary-General Ch'en T'ung-ho.

Brief 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-ping's daughter, Pai Hsiao-yen. Chang Chih-hui, the brother-in-law of Ch'en Chin-hsing, was accused of assisting Ch'en Chin-hsing and others. During the second retrial, although the collegiate bench 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 rescinded the second retrial judgment on March 13 of this year (2003) and remanded the case for retrial. In addition, regarding the Taipei Investigation Division's illegal interrogation of Chang Chih-hui, the Control Yuan has completed an investigation report demanding that the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau independently penalize the personnel involved.

Brief Introduction to the Case of Su Chien-ho, Liu Bing-lang, Chuang Lin-xun

The record made when a prosecutor first interrogated Su Chien-ho and two others at the Hsichih Precinct in 1991 differed vastly from the contents of that interrogation audio recording. Over two years ago, during the retrial of the Su case, the collegiate bench examined the interrogation audio recording for the first time. On January 13 of this year, citing a lack of evidence in the case, the collegiate bench acquitted Su Chien-ho and the other two defendants and released them on the spot. The High Prosecutors Office is currently appealing this case to the Supreme Court.

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Appendices

1. Taiwan High Court Criminal Examination Record (Chang Chih-hui Case) Partial Content

   May 24, 1997, 22:43:35~22:50:50 Circumstances of Chang Chih-hui Being Interrogated at the Investigation Division (Examined by the Fourth Criminal Court of the Taiwan High Court at 9:30 AM on July 2, 1999)

   Four personnel from the Investigation Division used intimidation, threats, verbal abuse, and enticement together to gradually make Chang Chih-hui confess to assisting Ch'en Chin-hsing (Excerpt)

   Interrogator in white: Abbreviated as "White"
   Interrogator in red: Abbreviated as "Red"
   Interrogator in blue: Abbreviated as "Blue"
   Interrogator in yellow: Abbreviated as "Yellow"
   Defendant Chang Chih-hui: Abbreviated 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 side, we will definitely petition for it on your behalf. Let me tell you, when you walk out of these gates, really no one is willing to listen to you talk. With this case happening, the three of them will be caught sooner or later, it's impossible for them to run. They have no money, and no one dares to give them a ride. To put it bluntly, if anyone finds them right now to help them smuggle out, people will be the first to grab them to claim the thirty million reward. Right now, all smuggling operations along Taiwan's coasts are starving and cannot operate.
   Red: Everyone is going crazy.
   White: Whoever dares to take them out will be a public enemy. These people really shouldn't bother mixing in society anymore, the police are going to risk their lives.
   Red: If word gets out it will also be extraordinary.
   White: The police usually take things from these people, eat what these people eat, drink what these people drink, but when trouble happens, they turn their backs and refuse to recognize anyone. Don't think about that trick, don't think about that trick, they have no ability to run out. One day, two days, three days, four days, they are bound to be caught.
   Red: Dead end.
   White: You wait for him to be caught, your family is already unrecognizable, you'll die faster than him, and your sister has already died before him. This is simply not a winning bet. If you want to gamble, you have to gamble when there's a chance. When there is no evidence and nothing unfavorable to you, you refuse to admit it—you are truly a fool. But look at what is placed before your eyes, this society has already held parades twice. How could your sister possibly survive? If none of you step forward yourselves, if none of you in your own family reflect, realize, and review yourselves, can this society let you off? Today, even if the police are incompetent and cannot catch them in a month or two, fine, won't someone retaliate against you? It's really fast, immediate karma. Today, if I were Pai Ping-ping, today I would just watch whether 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 children, you are over twenty-one years old, do you want to be hacked to pieces and thrown into a drainage ditch by people? You'll go pick up the pieces, fish them out, and identify them at the mortuary! What a miserable scene that is, do you think it won't happen? Pai Ping-ping has ties to the underworld, don't be too naive, how many faction leaders are sharpening their fists.
   Red: Did you hear Yang Teng-k'uei talking over there, shouting across the sea? You know Yang Teng-k'uei, right? 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: You're not even afraid! You're too young, you're not afraid, wait until the day people show up at your doorstep, you'll really call out to your father and mother with no one answering.
   Red: They are all waiting for us.
   White: You'd rather we lock you up, people's patience is also running out.
   Red: You haven't thought about this problem at all.
   White: We can still talk to you here, once you enter the police station can you come out "in one piece"? They'll grind away at you until you're completely finished. Don't enter prison, don't think you can come out of a detention center alive either. The underworld's power inside is even faster, don't get sodomized by people in there within three days, and hacked into pieces the day after tomorrow, dying without even knowing how you died.
   Red: There is another problem.
   White: For the Pai Hsiao-yen case, the Ministry of Justice has now changed parole eligibility from one-third to one-half, raising the parole threshold. Everyone is venting their hatred on you guys, saying you guys caused it. If you go in, I guarantee you'll want to die every day, don't you believe it!
   White: There are people in society who want to buy this head of yours.
   Blue: Talk about the matter at Takuan Road.
   White: If you don't talk, we also can't be bothered to deal with you, and we'll transfer you, alright?
   Blue: Did you hear that, did you hear that.
   Hui: Yes.
   Blue: Explain it clearly (loudly).
   Yellow: Just state the process.
   White: How you helped them find a place to stay and helped relieve them between the 16th and the 29th.
   Hui: 16th to 29th?
   Red: What about the 28th?
   Hui: 28th, that day, that day.
   White: Don't lie to us.
   Red: On the night of the 28th at your home, they went to look for you.
   Hui: At my home?
   Red: Several of them ran to your home to look for you. Otherwise they called you, or phoned you.
   Blue: People clearly saw you drive the driving class car to buy breakfast.
   White: You say there's no such thing, then where did you buy it? Where did you buy it to?
   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 class, you would go buy breakfast there?
   Hui: After going to work, that place was my last day getting off work, going to work.
   Red: What breakfast do you buy 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. Right now your problem is the most important. What kind of result do you hope for? I keep emphasizing this issue. Just now our colleague talked about the underworld issue, because this case has made many people unable to survive, you know? Smugglers cannot survive, and other underworld elements are all... People have tallied the accounts on you guys. Pai Ping-ping is very familiar with both underworld and police circles, acting for so many years, she may not be able to find you, but the underworld is also careful. Do you dare say they won't find you? It's hard.
   White: No need for her to find you, this kind of thing, people will step forward on their own.
   Red: Pai Ping-ping, let's not say much, just one million, and you'll be taken care of.
   White: Does your wife go to work?
   Hui: ...
   White: Do you want your wife's hand to be held in the drainage ditch that day, stripped bare just like that by people, her neck twisted out of shape, her tongue stuck out, her eyes bulging, and also raped? Do you want that? Do you hope for it to happen in your family? Do you hope to hold your mother's corpse in the main drainage ditch that day, hacked to pieces by people?

   May 26, 1997, 11:34:05~11:36:00 Chang Chih-hui Interrogated at Taipei Investigation Division (Examined by the High Court at 17:30 on July 7, 1999)
   
   Interrogator in red: Abbreviated as Red
   Another interrogator: Abbreviated as B

   Hui: (Chang Chih-hui kneels before Section Chief Su)
   Red: Kneeling for what, 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 is?
   Red: Is what we told you the truth? Did we tell you any lies?
   Hui: No.
   Red: What did she say?
   Hui: She said going to the Investigation Division...
   Red: What did she say?
   Red: Sit closer.
   Red: What did she say?
   Hui: She said...
   Red: Who told her to say it? Your sister, ah.
   B: His sister just finished eating, she should have talked with him about it.
   Red: Oh, you saw it. Yesterday we took you, we were very covert, right? The police followed later and brought reporters, clearly wanting your whole family to die out. Is that right? We didn't want people to know about this matter, right? We were afraid the underworld behind would retaliate against you, right? Then look at what to do, your wife, your child. Yesterday Pai Ping-ping saw that you funded him, and she was very furious.

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

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

   A: Hurry up and explain clearly, what is going on, what is the process?
   B: You, so foolish.
   C: You! If you flip again now, flip completely, it doesn't matter. Even if you never met, flip on everything, we won't bother with you at all, the case is closed, right? We won't ask about this anymore, however the police want to ask they can ask. The police still let you sit like this? Do you think you can still sit here and talk to the police like this? The scenes shown in movies are all true, not fake, and even worse. You are asking for death, and you still dare to flip back and forth on us! The truth is only one, you give me versions A, B, and not just that, versions D too, from A-cup to D-cup, there are so many versions, so many versions.
   A: Are you abandoning your wife now? And your children? And your mother?
   C: But I don't care about you anymore. If it were purely you and me... Fine, let's not ask, it's over. You have nothing, completely deny it, completely deny it, fine. Then you already testified yesterday, you looked at every page of the written record, you signed every page, does that count or not? Count it, right? Relying on this to sentence you, is it enough?
   A: Enough.
   C: You have already confessed, you have already surrendered yourself, and you're so damn unlucky, it also matches the crime scene. Things are big, who knows. If it didn't match, nothing more could be said, but you described what kind of underwear Pai Hsiao-yen was wearing, and everything, and the steel wire used to tie her fingers. Under such circumstances, everything matches, everything is the same. If you really wanted me to make it 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 Interrogated at Taipei Investigation Division
   (Examined by the Third Criminal Court of the Taiwan High Court at 10:00 on May 21, 1999)

   C: If there was assistance, there was assistance. If you alone provided assistance, then you alone provided assistance, why drag Tsou Huo-jung into this? You're going to die this way, you've offended everyone. Your wife doesn't want you either, I'm not playing with you anymore. (C stands up and lightly slaps Chang Chih-hui three times)

   May 28, 1997, 19:46:10~19:46:50 Chang Chih-hui Interrogated at Taipei Investigation Division
   (Examined by the Third Criminal Court of the Taiwan High Court at 10:00 on May 21, 1999)

   C: I just told you to look at Pai Hsiao-yen, or be watched to death by her (C presses Chang Chih-hui's neck, pulls Chang Chih-hui's clothes, gently pushes his face). So later when they call to say something happened at the company, it's eighty percent your good deed.
   Hui: On the 20th?
   C: In the early morning of the 20th! They are 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 don't care about you anymore, I won't bother with you, I'll say whatever I want to say, right now I... are you interested in Pai Hsiao-yen (C pushes Chang Chih-hui)?

2. Taiwan Taipei District Prosecutors Office Hsiang-Tzu No. 234 of 1991

   Examination Record and Audio Transcript (Liu Bing-lang Portion)

   1. Content of Written Record

      Male, born May 15, 1962, 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 during police interrogation truthful?
      A: Not truthful. I did not participate. After finishing our game of billiards, we returned directly to Keelung.

   2. Content of Audio Recording

      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: Tungshin Street in Keelung, right?
      26:46 Liu Bing-lang: Correct.
      26:36 Unclear (Sound of speaking)
      26:47 Ts'u Chi-chen: What number?
      26:48 Liu Bing-lang: Lane 89.
      26:49 Ts'u Chi-chen: (Unclear) number. 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: Attending classes at a cram school.
      26:55 Unclear (Sound of door opening and closing)
      26:56 Ts'u Chi-chen: We say that living in this world, although you are young and might have done something wrong, it's a very simple principle, you understand it too, right? It's about following your conscience! Standing upright and relying on our consciences. People inevitably make mistakes; sometimes they make small mistakes, sometimes they make big mistakes. Regardless of small or big mistakes, there is pressure in your heart. If you speak it out, sometimes minor mistakes have nothing to do with the law, while other times what you commit relates to the law. When you state the matter, the pressure on your conscience will be a bit less, and you will also have an account to give to the victim or to society. The law will naturally consider giving you a chance to turn over a new leaf. For example, when you were little at home, if you secretly took five or ten NT dollars from your parents and your parents found out, they scolded you and that was it as long as you admitted your mistake. If you didn't admit it, your parents would still make you kneel and discipline you, right? The principle is the same, very simple! Society and the law are the same! Regardless of big or small matters, if you explain things clearly, the law will likewise consider giving you a chance to turn over a new leaf. If you flip back and forth, dragging this and pulling that, then... then the law may also refrain from giving you a chance because of your bad attitude afterward, and there's nothing that can be done. Anyway, everything depends on your conscience! Matters have come to this point. Are these things you are telling true or not? You have spoken twice, right? There were two written records made, you saw them both, right? Did they show them to you?
      28:09 Unclear (Sound of turning pages)
      28:18 Ts'u Chi-chen: Are these things you are telling true or not? You have spoken twice, right? There were two written records made, you saw them both, right? Did they show them to you?
      (Liu Bing-lang told the prosecutor that he had not seen the two police interrogation records, which was not recorded in the prosecutor's investigation record.)
      28:27 Liu Bing-lang: No.
      28:28 Ts'u Chi-chen: No. Then are your statements truthful? This process you narrated, starting from the early morning of the 24th, coming back from Disney Amusement Park... are you holding a machete? Or a kitchen knife?
      28:42 Liu Bing-lang: What was said those two times, some parts are wrong.
      28:45 Ts'u Chi-chen: Then are you? It doesn't matter! If there are errors, you can speak them out. Let me ask you! Are 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 that I didn't participate at all!
      28:56 Ts'u Chi-chen: You didn't participate at all!
      28:57 Liu Bing-lang: Correct.
      28:58 Ts'u Chi-chen: Then everything you said was made up as a story?
      (Liu Bing-lang told the prosecutor that the records made at the police station were because he was afraid of being beaten, which was not recorded in the prosecutor's investigation 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 it? Who said you had it?
      29:09 Liu Bing-lang: No, it was police officers who asked me...
      29:12 Ts'u Chi-chen: Then who said? Who said you participated? Who said you had it? Was it Wang Wen-hsiao who dragged you into this?
      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, 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 billiards that day until?
      29:29 Liu Bing-lang: Played billiards until past two o'clock? Played until past two o'clock and we went to Keelung. To Keelung, those people... Su Chien-ho asked if we wanted to go to Railway Street? I said okay, and we went.
      29:44 Ts'u Chi-chen: To do what! To look for girls?
      29:47 Liu Bing-lang: Correct.
      29:47 Ts'u Chi-chen: No money?
      29:48 Liu Bing-lang: We had money!
      29:50 Ts'u Chi-chen: Exactly because you had no money 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! We told him to wait for us at the amusement park! After a while I came out first! I went to look for him... after about ten minutes...
      30:09 Ts'u Chi-chen: Put the tape... bring Wang Wen-chung here again, that Wang Wen-chung...
      30:13 Unclear (Pressed PAUSE button)