Taiwan can’t effectively preach soft power while continuing to execute its citizens.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/09/11
By: David Evans
Credit: Depositphotos
On the afternoon of Friday Aug. 31, Lee Hung-chi (李宏基) was executed by firing squad at a jail in Kaohsiung. His crime was a heinous one.
In April 2014, Lee, now 39, stabbed his ex-wife to death outside the kindergarten attended by their two young daughters. He then abducted one of the girls and drove into the mountains where he drugged her, before setting fire to charcoal in the car. His objective was for them both to die, but they were rescued.
Lee later made a full recovery, but his daughter died in hospital two months later.
Lee was initially handed a 15-year sentence for the murder of his wife, and a life term for causing the death of his daughter. However, Taiwan’s High Court later increased the sentences to life in prison for his wife’s murder and the death sentence for his daughter’s death. These sterner sentences were subsequently upheld by Taiwan’s Supreme Court in 2016. [FULL STORY]