Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu

TAIWAN: FIVE DEATH-ROW CONVICTS EXECUTED

March 4, 2011: Five convicts on death row were executed in Taiwan, the Ministry of Justice said in a statement.
The executions came less than a year after the ministry resumed enforcing capital punishment verdicts last April after ending an unofficial moratorium on the execution of death-row inmates that had existed since 2005.
According to the MOJ statement, the five death-row inmates were executed in the evening after Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu signed their execution decrees earlier in the day.
The five inmates were identified as Guang Chung-yen, Wang Kuo-hua, Chung Teh-shu, Wang Chih-huang and Chuang Tien-chu, the statement said.
The five men were put to death by shooting, said the state Central News Agency, citing Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu. One of the five had been convicted of killing seven people while another was sentenced for setting fire to a cram school, killing three and injuring 18, according to local media. After these executions, there remained 40 convicts on death row, according to official tallies. (Sources: focustaiwan.tw, Afp, 04/03/2011)