Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/28
By: Lu Hsin-hui, Ku Chuan, Justin Su, Chen Chun-hua and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, March 28 (CNA) The brutal beheading of a 4-year-old girl in an apparent random attack in Taipei on Monday has renewed debate over the death penalty, which is still carried out in Taiwan, with advocates asking opponents if they still favored abolishing it.

A 33-year-old man has been detained in connection with the gruesome killing of the girl as she and her mother were on their way to a subway station in Neihu District in northern Taipei late Monday morning.

The suspect grabbed the child from behind and decapitated her with a cleaver. The girl died on the spot, according to police.

The tragedy sparked a heated debate in the Internet community, with Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡), the executive director of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, saying that she was “very, very, very sad” about the tragedy on a Facebook post.

She wrote that she really wanted to find a solution on how to stop such incidents.    [FULL STORY]