Il ministro della Giustizia taiwanese, Chen Ting-nan, ha dichiarato che spera di abolire la pena di morte nell'isola entro tre anni.

"La pena capitale non serve a fermare il crimine", ha affermato, suscitando reazioni contrastanti in vari settori della societ� taiwanese. Le organizzazioni di difesa dei diritti umani hanno plaudito all'iniziativa, mentre i partiti d'opposizione hanno avanzato forti critiche. "Se riesce ad abolire la pena di morte - ha sostenuto il parlamentare Chen Chien-chih del principale schieramento d'opposizione, il Kuomintang - mi chiedo come terr� sotto controllo i reati pi� gravi". Stando a sondaggi condotti in passato dai media locali, l'80 per cento della popolazione di Taiwan � contraria all'abolizione della pena capitale. Secondo i dati forniti da Amnesty International, che per� risalgono a quattro anni fa, le esecuzioni sono aumentate dal 1995 al 1997: nel '95 16 persone sono state mandate a morte, nel '96 ventidue, nel '97 trentotto. L'ordine che fissa la data della sentenza viene firmato dal ministro della Giustizia senza che il detenuto ne sia informato. Il condannato viene ucciso tramite colpo di arma da fuoco o iniezione letale.

  18/05/01

Editorial: Time to end the death penalty

Every justice minister has to face the question when taking office: "Do you support the death penalty?" Many ministers have opposed the penalty before they take office. But afterwards, as they struggled to cope with worsening public security, they ended up keeping capital punishment. Chen Ding-nan  is not the first person to say the death penalty should be abolished. But he is the first justice minister to set a deadline for doing so. He has promised to abolish capital punishment within three years. This is a tremendous change in terms of judicial reform and human rights. His bravery deserves to be applauded. Since Article 100 of the Criminal Code was abolished, no one in Taiwan has had to face the death penalty for dissent. The penalty is prescribed for serious crimes in the Act for the Control and Punishment of Banditry  and the Criminal Code. Although only a few crimes qualify for the death penalty and the number of sentences have been decreasing, the government must still adopt a scrupulous attitude in handling the matter. The debate over the death penalty is not a new one in Taiwan. Before every execution, appeals are made to ban the death sentence. Such voices, however, usually fade away after an execution. Eighty percent of the people of Taiwan are in favor of retaining the penalty -- they like the idea of tit-for-tat retribution. But no one has the right to take another's life -- not even the government. And especially not when the actions of the judiciary, the prosecution and the police have been proven time and time again, in case after case, to be flawed. How many innocent people must die to placate society's need for "security?" While we agree with the plan to abolish the death sentence, the government needs to come up with measures to placate the public's obsession with the idea that death is a valid deterrent to crime. It isn't. But this belief has been the most difficult obstacle in previous debates over abolishing capital punishment. If the government wants to abolish the penalty, it must strengthen education in law and human rights. Let the public understand that deprivation of a life is not the only way to uphold justice, that the death penalty is not a deterrent against crime and that strong enforcement of the law is the only really effective means of keeping order in a society. If the death sentence is abolished, the government will also have to come up with a way to more effectively isolate criminals from society. It must reconsider the relative weight of punishments for major crimes as stipulated in the Criminal Code . It also needs to amend the law to allow judges to give appropriate sentences according to different degrees of criminal behavior. This will help maintain the Criminal Code's deterrence value. The government should also review how sentences are imposed and carried out. It should especially be careful in the implementation of bail, commutations of sentences and pardons. Taiwan used to have very loose rules for bail reviews and commutations were often granted for political reasons. Serious criminals, including death row inmates, were able to get their sentences reduced and walk out of jail. This allowed criminals to repeat their crimes and deepened the public suspicion about the effectiveness of Taiwan's punitive system. The Ministry of Justice has faced tremendous opposition to amending the criminal provisions that mandatorily impose the death penalty. The amendments are frozen in the Legislative Yuan. We hope its efforts to the abolish the death penalty will fare better. Abolishment of capital punishment will be another step forward for Taiwan's democratization. There is no place for the death penalty in a civilized society.