A Taiwanese death row inmate who killed his ex-wife and daughter in 2014 was executed by shooting in Southern Taiwan on Friday, the Justice Ministry said.

It was the first execution since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in May 2016.

“We respect the decision made by the Ministry of Justice,’’ presidential spokesman Alex Huang said in a statement.

Deputy Justice Minister Chen Ming-tang said that the execution was carried out to ensure both social justice and human rights.

“People should not falsely believe that, in this country, you won’t be sentenced to death if you kill someone or the death penalty won’t be carried out,’’ Chen told a news conference.

According to the ministry, in April 2014, the 41-year-old man stabbed his ex-wife to death and then killed his 6-year-old daughter by burning charcoal in a car.

Dozens of activists from the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty and other non-governmental organisations protested outside the ministry.

“The right to life is one of fundamental human rights,’’ Wu Jia-zhen of the alliance told a news conference, stressing that the right should be protected by law.

Chiu E-ling, secretary general of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, said the government approved the execution at this very moment in order to gain more votes in the coming local elections in late November.

In Taiwan, the last death penalty was carried out on May 10, 2016, when a Taiwanese university student who stabbed to death four subway passengers in May 2014 was executed. (dpa/NAN)

– Aug. 31, 2018 @ 15:15 GMT |