Taiwan carries out first execution in five years

Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai, 32, who was found guilty of strangling to death his ex-girlfriend and her mother in 2017, was executed by shooting late Thursday.

"The crimes Huang was involved in were cruel and callous. They were dehumanizing, extremely vicious and the culpability was extremely serious," the Justice Ministry said after the execution.

Taiwan has evolved from a dictatorship into one of Asia's most progressive democracies, but surveys show most Taiwanese people support the death penalty.

The island has carried out 36 executions since a moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in 2010.

Thursday's execution was the first under President Lai Ching-te, who took office in May 2024.

Under his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen, who also belongs to the Democratic Progressive Party, two people were executed.

Thirty-three death row inmates were executed during the presidency of Tsai's predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang party.

Taiwan's Constitutional Court ruled in September that capital punishment should be "limited to special and exceptional circumstances".

Amnesty International Taiwan director E-Ling Chiu said Thursday's execution was a "shocking and cruel development".

"Taiwan's Minister of Justice, with a strike of his pen, has undone several years of hard-fought progress towards the abolition of the death penalty. This is a huge setback for human rights in Taiwan," Chiu said.

The European Union said it condemned Huang's crime "in the strongest terms" but insisted on its opposition to capital punishment in "all circumstances".

"The EU therefore calls on Taiwan to apply and maintain a de facto moratorium, and to pursue a consistent policy towards the full abolition of the death penalty in Taiwan," the bloc said in a statement.

Taiwan's main opposition party, Kuomintang, previously criticised the Constitutional Court ruling as "effectively abolishing" the death penalty.

On Thursday, the party urged the government to execute the 36 remaining death row inmates after their judicial process has ended.