President to review pardon request for ‘rice bomber’

The spokesman made the remarks after the legislature unanimously passed a non-binding resolution Friday requesting presidential amnesty for Yang Ju-men, better known locally as “the rice bomber,” because he sprinkled small amounts of rice in his homemade explosives during a one-year bombing “campaign” that began in November 2003.

Yang is serving a five-and-a-half-year prison term for planting at least 17 explosive devices around Taipei until he turned himself in to police in the company of his brother in November 2004. Nobody was injured in Yang’s campaign.

Yang said during his trial that he had resorted to the bombing campaign to attract the government’s attention to the plight of local farmers after the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2002.

The legislature’s non-binding request for a special pardon to Yang was passed along with a commutation statute granting amnesty to prison inmates serving sentences of 18 months or less.

The Presidential Office spokesman said President Chen will make a thorough review of Yang’s case in terms of expert views collected in his extensive consultations with specialists, as well as the principles and spirit of the newly passed commutation statute.

According to the spokesman, the president believes that those who offend the law unwittingly or occasionally should not be denied an opportunity to correct their own errors or deficiencies and get a fresh start in life.

On April 24, President Chen proposed an amnesty plan in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the 228 Incident of 1947 and the 20th anniversary of the lifting of 38 years of martial law in 1987.

Acting on Chen’s directive, the Cabinet drafted a commutation bill and referred it to the legislature for approval.

Although the ruling Democratic Progressive Party supported the Cabinet-drafted bill, the version proposed by the “pan-blue alliance” of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) was passed by the legislature after a cross-party consensus was reached.

The Cabinet-drafted version would grant commutation to only those who receive one-year sentences or less, compared to the opposition-proposed one-and-a half-year sentences or less.

Some DPP lawmakers accused the “pan-blue alliance” of tailoring the statute to benefit KMT Legislator Chiu Yi.

Chiu was sentenced to 14 months in prison for his violent conduct during a protest at the Kaohsiung District Court following the 2004 presidential election. Chiu began serving time behind bar in April.

According to Ministry of Justice estimate, 14,795 inmates can be released immediately now that the KMT-proposed version has been passed, while another 10,140 will have their sentences cut by half.

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