Taiwan's justice minister, Tseng Yung-fu, speaks to reporters

TAIWAN: SIX DEATH-ROW INMATES EXECUTED

April 19, 2013: six convicts on death row were executed in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Hualien, the Ministry of Justice said in a statement. The executions were carried out after Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu signed orders giving the go-ahead for the death sentences to be carried out.
Lin Chin-te was executed at Taipei Prison; Chen Jui-chin at Greater Taichung Prison; Chen Tung-jung at Greater Tainan Prison; and Chang Pao-hui, Chi Chun-i and Lee Chia-hsuan at Hualien Prison, Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang told a press conference. They were anaesthetised and then shot.
Chen Jui-chin was sentenced to death for killing six people for the insurance payments – his three sons, two wives and a third woman.
Chen Tung-jung was convicted of setting fire to a hotel and killing 26 people in then-Tainan City in 1985. He had been on the run for 25 years before he was captured. A court ruling said he set fire to the hotel because his friend had had a small dispute with a member of staff.
Chang had been convicted of breaking into a residence in February 2003, and robbing and murdering an elderly man and his girlfriend. After he was caught, investigators discovered that Chang had also killed his own girlfriend in 2002.
Chi and Lee were convicted for a brutal shootout at a Taichung tea house in 2004. Three people died and two were seriously injured in the incident. The pair also committed two kidnappings before they were caught.
Lin set fire to his girlfriend’s house in Keelung in July 2002, killing three young girls.
This is the fourth time that a series of executions has been carried out since Tseng Yung-fu became justice minister in 2010. A total of 21 criminals on death row have been executed during his tenure. Taiwan executed six prisoners in December 2012, five in 2011 and four in 2010 – the 2010 executions were the first after a hiatus that had lasted since 2005.
With 19 April's executions, the number of death row inmates now stands at 50, according to the Ministry of Justice. (Sources: www.chinapost.com.tw, 19/04/2013; www.taipeitimes.com, 20/04/2013)