33-year-old Liang Yu-chih, who was previously sentenced to death for the brutal killing of a Malaysian student in 2020, has had his sentence reduced to life imprisonment following an appeal.
According to ET Today, Taiwan’s High Court in Kaohsiung made the controversial decision today by overturning earlier rulings from three lower courts.
According to China Times, the victim, 24-year-old Chung, had been studying at Chang Jung Christian University in Tainan.
On the night of Oct 28, 2020, she was walking back to her dormitory alone when she was ambushed by Liang near a railway underpass.
Liang used a rope to overpower her and dragged her into nearby bushes. He then sexually assaulted and strangled her, resulting in fatal internal injuries.
What happened after the murder?
After the murder, Liang showed no signs of panic or regret.
He placed Chung’s body in his car and drove around for over 10 hours across Kaohsiung.
During this time, he used the victim’s phone to make payments at petrol stations and even bought food.
Eventually, he dumped her body in a remote forested area in Kaohsiung’s Alian District.
The crime remained unsolved for several days until police used CCTV footage and GPS tracking to arrest Liang.
Court lowers sentence due to 2024 ruling
Liang had originally been sentenced to death by the Tainan District Court in 2022.
This was later upheld by both the High Court and Supreme Court’s second review.
However, the sentence was re-examined following a major legal shift in 2024.
In 2024, Taiwan’s Constitutional Court ruled that the death penalty should only apply to cases of deliberate and planned murder, narrowing its legal scope, reported Yahoo! News.
Judges reviewing Liang’s case concluded that although the crime was violent, there was no proof that Liang had planned to kill Chung from the beginning.
They also pointed to psychological evaluations, which stated that Liang had mental health issues and impulse control problems, and had the “potential for rehabilitation” with long-term therapy and correctional treatment.
As a result, his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment, along with additional years for robbery, attempted abduction, and corpse abandonment.
Criminal record
According to TVBS, Liang had a history of dangerous behavior.
One month before Chung’s murder, Liang attempted to abduct another woman near a university.
The victim managed to escape and report the incident, but no arrest was made at the time.
Prosecutors used this to show that Liang had a pattern of targeting young women in isolated areas, raising further public anger over how the earlier case was handled.
Family of victim devastated by ruling
Chung’s mother, who had flown from Malaysia to attend every court hearing, cried as she heard the new verdict.
She told reporters that she was “deeply hurt and betrayed” by the court’s decision.
I lost my daughter, and now I’ve lost justice too,” she said during a press interview in Kaohsiung.
The family has called on Malaysian authorities to raise the case with Taiwan’s government.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office released a statement saying they strongly disagreed with the ruling.
They argued that the violent nature of Liang’s actions, including sexual assault and calculated steps to hide the body, clearly showed extreme cruelty.
They plan to file an appeal with Taiwan’s Supreme Court, hoping to reinstate the death penalty.
The case has sparked widespread anger on Taiwanese and Malaysian social media, with many questioning how someone who admitted to killing and abusing a young woman could be considered for rehabilitation.
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