Taipei – Taiwan’s government said on Monday, for the first time that it could not rule out the involvement of the previous authoritarian regime of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in an unsolved political murder case from 1980.
On Feb. 28, 1980, an unknown assailant murdered the 60-year-old mother and 7-year-old twin daughters of an imprisoned dissident at his home in Taipei, while Lin’s 9-year-old daughter was also seriously injured.
Since then, investigators have been unable to solve the murder case.
However a report released by the Transitional Justice Commission, now shows that Lin Yi-hsiung, a prominent dissident leader of the democratisation movement in Taiwan and a non-party member of the Taiwan Provincial Assembly, was seen as an enemy of the state.
The findings, which analyse newly declassified government files, show that some key recordings from a wiretap at Lin’s residence were also mysteriously destroyed.
The report suggested that investigators endeavoured not to place the authoritarian regime under suspicion, instead targeting political dissidents and foreigners in efforts to identify the assailant.
Yu Po-hsiang, a commission member, said in Taipei that the involvement of the authoritarian regime in the case cannot be ruled out.
“We urge the government to declassify more archives in order to help find a clear answer.
“Lin and his family members have declined to respond to the new findings,’’ Yu said.
Taiwan has had its own government since 1949, when the Chinese Nationalists fled to the island after losing a civil war to the Communists.
The authoritarian regime of KMT ruled the island through the early 1990s.
(dpa/NAN)