Paris protest over Taiwan execution

Paris, Feb 13 (AFP) More than 100,000 French people have signed a petition urging Taiwan to spare the life of condemned prisoner Chiou Ho-shun and announce a moratorium on capital punishment, Amnesty International said today. The petition is to be presented tomorrow to Taiwan's representative office in Paris. It is part of an international campaign to prevent Chiou's execution following a 1989 murder conviction that Amnesty says was produced by an unfair trial and a confession extracted by torture. Chiou, 52, has been in custody for nearly 25 years since his arrest along with 11 other people in connection with two separate murders. Following the exhaustion of the appeal process, he could be executed at any moment, according to Amnesty. Taiwan has executed a total of 15 people since 2009 when it signed up to an international treaty on civil and political rights that theoretically restricts use of this sanction. Six prisoners were executed in December in a case that caused further controversy when their organs were later harvested for transplants. (AFP) HKR 02131916 NNNN