The Kaohsiung branch of the Taiwan High Court has reduced a China Mainland man’s jail sentence from 26 years to 13 for allegedly ordering the killing of suspected pirates while he was captain of a Taiwan Area vessel in 2012, the Taipei Times has reported..
Wang Fengyu was arrested on August 22nd 2020 after the ship he was captain of at that time, the Seychelles-flagged Indian Star (IMO 9202297), docked at the Port of Kaohsiung. In October 2020 Kaohsiung prosecutors charged Wang with homicide and contraventions of the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act for the alleged killing of four suspected pirates.
In January 2021 the Kaohsiung District Court found Wang guilty of the charges and sentenced him to 26 years imprisonment. Wang appealed the case, but the High Court in May last year upheld the sentence. He filed another appeal with the Supreme Court, which found discrepancies in the evidence presented, and in August last year it ordered the High Court’s Kaohsiung branch to re-examine the case for a retrial.
On June 17th the High Court said the evidence only showed that Wang had ordered the killing of one suspected pirate, not four, and reduced his sentence to 13 years. The court said it also considered in its ruling the serious security issues related to the incident taking place at sea.
The ruling can still be appealed.
The incident occurred on September 29th 2012 aboard the Kaohsiung-registered fishing vessel Ping Shin 101 (IMO 8648092) while it was operating in the Indian Ocean off
Somalia. Wang was hired by a Kaohsiung company in 2011 to serve as acting captain of the vessel.
The vessel was operating about 595km southeast of Mogadishu, along with the Kaohsiung-registered fishing vessel Chun I No 217 (IMO 8748842)and two other unidentified fishing boats. The group was allegedly fired upon by a vessel crewed by four suspected pirates. One of the fishing boats rammed the attacking vessel, causing it to capsize and depositing
the alleged pirates in the water. Wang was charged with instructing two Pakistani crew members to shoot the men in the water, court documents claimed.
It was two years before the killings became public when,in August 2014, a 10-minute video clip of the shootings emerged online.
It was reported that a smartphone believed to have filmed the shootings was found in a taxi in Fiji and an anonymous person uploaded the video to YouTube. In the clip, a man believed to be the captain is heard giving orders in Mandarin with a Chinese accent over a loudspeaker to the crew, as 40 rounds of live ammunition are fired. The four men in the water are shot one by one, with the video showing the water turning red around them. No images of the shooters are seen.
Although Wang is Chinese and the crime occurred in the Indian Ocean, prosecutors said they were able to charge him in Taiwan because the shootings originated on a Taiwanese vessel.
In the indictment, Wang allegedly told prosecutors that he was involved in “tracking down pirates,” but said the shootings were in
self-defence.
1998-built, Seychelles-flagged, 525 gt Indian Star is owned and managed by Indian Star Fishery Co Ltd of Victoria, Mahe Island, Seychelles.
1989-built, Taiwan-flagged, 718 gt Ping Shin 101 is currently owned and managed by Lee Chao Ping of Kaohsiung, Taiwan Area.
1989-built, Taiwan-Area-flagged, 725 gt Chun I No 217 is owned and managed by Tching Ye Fishery Co Ltd of Kaohsiung, Taiwan Area.
