Statement | The Hsiao Ming-yüeh Case Suffers from Major Procedural and Evidentiary Flaws; Pro Bono Legal Team Will Continue to Assist in Case Relief

Recently, online media published articles concerning the Xiao Ming-yue case. Some of their contents are inconsistent with the facts of the case and the actual assistance provided by the Judicial Reform Foundation (hereinafter the JRF), and may therefore mislead the public. To clarify the relevant facts, the JRF and the pro bono legal team in this case issue the following statement:

1. The Xiao Ming-yue Involves Serious Procedural and Evidentiary Defects, and the Pro Bono Legal Team Has Repeatedly Assisted Xiao Ming-yue in Pursuing Extraordinary Remedies

Xiao Ming-yue previously worked as a real estate agent in Taichung. Between 2009 and 2010, he was accused of leading a drug-smuggling organization, directing his co-defendants from afar to negotiate drug transactions in Cambodia and then ship heroin back to Taiwan concealed inside books. In Supreme Court Criminal Judgment No. 197, Tai-Shang, 2013, the Supreme Court found Xiao Ming-yue guilty of jointly transporting Category 1 narcotics and sentenced him to life imprisonment and deprivation of citizen's rights for life.

However, there is no direct evidence proving that Xiao Ming-yue participated in the offense, and the investigation and trial involved multiple serious defects. These included a serious misidentification, improper interrogation by prosecutors, the absence of Xiao Ming-yue's biological traces from key items of evidence, and the court's reliance primarily on testimony from co-defendants to reach its guilty verdict. Three co-defendants later admitted that they had made statements adverse to Xiao Ming-yue in an effort to obtain reduced sentences. The reliability of the guilty verdict is therefore clearly open to question.

The JRF consequently formed a pro bono legal team to assist Xiao Ming-yue. In addition to leading volunteers and interns in organizing the case materials and initiating advocacy campaigns such as “Mid-Autumn Moon, When Will You Appear? Writing to Ask the Heavens,” the team submitted a request for review to the Conviction Review Committee of the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office in 2018; petitioned the Constitutional Court in 2022 for constitutional review of both the applicable legal provisions and the final court judgment; and petitioned the Taiwan High Court Taichung Branch Court for a retrial and pursued other extraordinary remedies in 2025. Regrettably, all of these applications were dismissed.

2. The JRF and the Pro Bono Legal Team Will Continue Assisting in This Case and Call on the Relevant Authorities to Implement the Resolution of the National Congress on Judicial Reform by Establishing a Criminal Cases Review Commission

The online article's statement that “judicial personnel wanted NT$2 million” represents only the author's personal view. The JRF has never heard of such a claim and is not in a position to comment on it. Efforts to remedy miscarriages of justice are often long and arduous. Although the applications filed thus far have not achieved an interim result, that does not mean the procedural and evidentiary defects in this case have been fully clarified. The JRF and the pro bono legal team will continue examining possible extraordinary remedies in the hope that this wrongful conviction will soon be overturned.

The pro bono legal team again calls on the relevant authorities to confront the harm that Xiao Ming-yue's prolonged and unremedied wrongful conviction has caused to public confidence in judicial fairness and justice. The authorities should promptly implement the resolution of the 2017 National Congress on Judicial Reform and establish a Criminal Cases Review Commission, so that there will not be more people placed in Xiao Ming-yue's position.

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Press Contact

Zhang Jia-qi, Legal Specialist, Case Action Department, Judicial Reform Foundation

Phone: 04-2329-2372 ext. 14

Email: jc@jrf.org.tw