Over 1000 exonerated of crimes in 1947 crackdown

Source: Focus Taiwan (2/27/19)
Over 1,000 people exonerated of crimes in 1947 crackdown

CNA file photo

Taipei, Feb. 27 (CNA) More than 1,000 people who were wrongly convicted during a brutal crackdown following an islandwide anti-government uprising in 1947 were absolved of any crime on Wednesday, according to the Transitional Justice Commission (TJC).

A total of 1,056 names were included on the latest list of exonerations published on the TJC website. Among them, 70 were provided by the 228 Memorial Foundation and are eligible for government compensation.

The exonerations come one day prior the 72nd anniversary of the 228 Incident that occurred in 1947.

The 228 Incident refers to a brutal crackdown by the then-Kuomintang government, headed by former President Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), after the anti-government uprising.

The crackdown, which continued into May that year, left 18,000-28,000 people dead, many of them members of the intellectual elite, according to government figures.

The commission said it has exonerated a total of 3,831 people so far, including people who were killed in the 228 Incident and those who were wrongly convicted of espionage or sedition during the Martial Law period, a time of suppression of political dissidents known as the White Terror era, which followed the 228 Incident.

Many people were subjected to extreme and severe punishment, in a process that was outrageous, quick and imprecise, and thus lost their freedom and even their lives, the TJC said on its Facebook page.

Those who survived had to endure for the rest of their lives the stigma of being convicted of crimes, the TJC said.

The exonerations followed the example of Germany, where a law was enacted to revoke unjust convictions handed down during a period of authoritarian rule and to obliterate any unjust criminal records to clear the names of the victims, the TJC said.

(By Matt Yu and William Yen)

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