Beliefs on trial, Taiwan dissident tells court

Press, 29 March 1980, Page 9

Beliefs on trial, Taiwan dissident tells court

NZPA-Reuter Taipei A leading Taiwanese dissi-, dent said yesterday that he' and seven others were on trial for their political beliefs. :and not for attempting to [overthrow the Government, jby illegal means, the charge (they face. I Yao Chia-Wen, aged 42, an I American-educated lawyer,•told the court: “I don’t think we are being- tried for sedition; we are on trial because' of the popularity gained by (Opposition parties in recent' years and their tremendous growth, which are intolerable [to the Kuomintang (ruling (Nationalist) Party.” i Mr Yao is one of the eight' •executives of the now-, [banned political magazine,! •‘Formosa,” charged with'

sedition after a riot in the southern port of Kaohsiung last December in which 183 securin' forces were injured. He told the five-member military tribunal: “The magazine, ’Formosa,’ is on trial, our political ideals for democratic reforms are on trial.” Mr Yao said “Formosa,” which was started last August, and banned after the riot, had been very popular and had achieved a circulation of 140,000. He said the magazine had been planned and published by Opposition leaders as a mouthpiece for their policies. It had also advocated elections for the 30-year-old Legislative Yan (Parliament) which was still controlled by Nationalists who retreated to

Taiwan in 1949 after their defeat by Communists on the mainland. “One of the investigators told me that they did not want to try us. He.said some legislators in the Parliament hated us because we called for the re-election,” Mr Yao said. i He declared that the aims of the Opposition were to seek peaceful reforms in Taiwan. The desire for democratic reforms is an irresistible trend in our times, it cannot be stopped by trials like this,” he said. He said the charges'-,were vague, and the prosecution had not-stated once that the (Kaohsiung riot had been engineered to overthrow the : Government.

“I guess this is because noone is foolish enough to be-j lieve that they.can overthrow' the Government with a rally,” he said. [ The prosecution rejected [his arguments, and said it [was clear that the defend[ants had the intent to. am actually did, subvert the Gov [ eminent by violent means, The prosecutor, Mr Tsp,l .Teng-Hung, called for severe [punishment for the defendants under Taiwan’s martial law. (Sedition carries a maximum penalty of death.) Another ' defendant, the magazine’s general manager, Shih Ming/Teh, said his interrogator had told him: “It does not matter if you confess or. not, it is the death sentence anyway,”