Changhua district court judges absolved Huang Sheng-fa, environmental protection chief, and Hsu Cheng-li, land office head, along with seven of their subordinates.

In a written verdict, judges chided Changhua district prosecutor Hung Shao-wen for “trying to incriminate” the defendants.

Hung, in charge of investigating what he believed was an illegal land use, detained Huang and Hsu for as long as four months.

He did not place the seven other officials under detention, however. Their identities were withheld.

Despite the evidence of innocence provided by the Environmental Protection Administration, judges pointed out, the prosecutor refused to release the two suspects and then indicted them for forgery.

Huang and Hsu were charged with falsifying official documents to make land available as landfill sites for the debris from the earthquake that killed at least 2,400 people in central Taiwan.

“Though the Environmental Protection Administration told the prosecutor in writing that both defendants were authorized to determine the sites in emergency,” the verdict pointed out, “the prosecutor refused to accept its words as evidence, refused to release them and went on to indict them.”

They were indicted in May 2000 after the four-month detention.

While being detained, Huang was told of his mother’s death. He asked for a temporary release, which was denied.

He did not attend her funeral.

“I feel no comfort,” Huang said after he had been informed of his acquittal. “For six years,” he added, “what the prosecutor did remained as a dagger thrust into my heart.”

The prosecutor, who was transferred to Nantou at the end of last August, said he did “everything in full accordance with the law.”

“I asked for detention, which was approved by district court judges,” Hung said. One of them, he added, was among the judges who handed down the verdict of innocence to Huang and Hsu.

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