The parole board under the ministry determined that the serial rapist, surnamed Yang, is now ready to re-enter society after serving 12 years of his 16-year term.
The 36-year-old Yang, dubbed the "Wolf of Huakang" after the name of the district in suburban Taipei where he committed his crimes, in March filed his eighth parole application in six years.
He submitted his parole application in 2001 following his admission to National Taiwan University's Department of Social Studies.
The ministry reportedly tended to approve the application so that he could attend NTU until news of his request broke in the press, sparking public controversies and fears concerning the risk of releasing him.
The pressure eventually led the ministry to reject his application.
In the following years, he continued submitting his parole applications, and they had been rejected amid controversies until yesterday.
NTU said that Yang may no longer be able to study there because the two-year deferment has been long over.
But the prestigious university said every student's rights to admission to NTU would be respected.
Yang was convicted of 34 counts of rape and robbery for a series of crimes he committed in the mid-1990s at Huakang, the neighborhood of the Chinese Culture University's campus on Yangmingshan. He has been in prison since November 1996.
Justice Minister Shih Mao-lin said that the ministry's parole board decided to release Yang on the grounds that the amount of time he has served in prison entitles him to parole.
Prison officials, criminologists and physicians have issued written reports on his mental condition in which they agree that Yang no longer poses a threat to society, Shih said.
The minister asked the public to accept Yang after his release, and he reassured the people that Yang will be closely monitored.
Shih said Yang will have to wear an electronic tag as one of the conditions of his release.
A women's rights activist group urged Yang not to commit the crime again. They also urged the Justice Ministry to keep a close watch on Yang.
Media reports said that Yang plans to go back to his home county of Hualien in eastern Taiwan after his release.
Some of his neighbors were cited by the United Evening News as saying that Yang's coming home would not worry them.
Hsieh Wen-ting, who was vice justice minister when Yang made his first parole request in 2001, said the ministry had not expected such huge controversies.
He said the ministry had not conducted a thorough evaluation on the impact of the controversies on Yang and his family, or on whether he could be accepted by society or whether he could cope with his new life.
The ministry then determined it was not yet time to parole Yang, Hsieh said.
