According to Taiwanese media reports, a vessel named “Jin Huixiang” was involved in a bloody incident at sea in 2000. Two crew members, Zhang Xfeng and Zhang Xsheng, conspired to brutally murder the captain. After the incident, Zhang Xsheng was apprehended by other crew members. Upon returning to Taiwan, Zhang Xsheng was sentenced to death. However, Zhang Xfeng escaped by jumping into the Pacific Ocean during the chaos.
Now, Zhang Xfeng has been a fugitive for 25 years and has not yet been brought to justice. As the statute of limitations has expired, the Kaohsiung District Court in Taiwan Province recently ruled that Zhang Xfeng is exempt from prosecution.
The verdict states that in March 2000, Zhang Xfeng and Zhang Xsheng were crew members on the “Jin Huixiang.” Dissatisfied with the hard work on board, they jointly planned to kill the Captain surnamed Li, then use the captain’s pistol to kill the other crew members, and subsequently pilot the vessel back to land.
In April 2000, while the vessel was operating in international waters east of Zealand, the two men, according to plan, first brutally murdered Captain Li using knives and a hammer.
Originally, the two planned to find the captain’s pistol and shoot the remaining crew members. However, they could not find the pistol and prepared to escape using a life raft. Other crew members then noticed something was wrong and moved to apprehend them. Zhang Xfeng seized an opportunity to jump into the vast ocean and escape. Zhang Xsheng, unable to jump into the sea in time, was arrested by the Chief Engineer surnamed Zhu and others.
After the incident, the “Jin Huixiang” sailed to and docked at the port of American Samoa. Zhang Xsheng was arrested by American police and later returned to Taiwan to stand trial, where he was ultimately sentenced to death. Zhang Xfeng, however, jumped into the sea on the night of the incident and remains missing to this day. The Kaohsiung Prosecutors Office and Kaohsiung District Court issued warrants for his arrest.
At the time of Zhang Xfeng’s involvement in the case, the “Regulations for the Punishment of Banditry” were still in effect in Taiwan Province, with the statutory punishment for robbery with intentional homicide being “death.” After the abolition of this law, and following a comparison of the old and new laws, the charge was changed to robbery with homicide.
The Kaohsiung District Court held that according to the statute of limitations for prosecution under the Criminal Code before its amendment, the maximum statutory punishment for robbery with homicide was death, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for not less than 10 years, and the statute of limitations for prosecution was 20 years.
The judge determined that the prosecutor’s investigation period began on July 10, 2000. Because Zhang Xfeng was wanted, causing the trial proceedings to be unable to commence, the statute of limitations was suspended for a total of 5 years.
After summation, Zhang Xfeng’s statute of limitations expired on July 6 of this year. Due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, the court ruled to exempt prosecution in this case.
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