Taiwan’s military police command has rejected accusations that it conducted an illegal search and seizure of historical documents from a private citizen’s home.
The accusation arose when a woman made a post online saying that the military police had conducted a search at her father’s residence and seized documents related to the “White Terror” period in Taiwan. The accusation prompted an outcry, since that sensitive period in history dating back to 1947, saw many innocent people imprisoned and killed.
A military police official, Hsieh Ming-teh, responded to the accusations on Sunday afternoon, saying that the documents were not related to the White Terror period. He said, rather, that they were connected to a spy case from the 1950s and 1960s, and that the citizen in question had been found openly selling the documents, thereby revealing confidential information.
Hsieh said that the military police had not conducted a search, and that the man had signed an agreement allowing the military police to seize three documents from a file cabinet. Hsieh said that the seizure had been filmed and recorded, and was in keeping with regular procedures.