Admiral Ordered Liu Murder, Court Told : Taiwan Gang Leader Testifies Officer Called Journalist a Traitor

The Taiwan gang leader accused of leading the hit squad that murdered a Chinese-American journalist in California told a judge here Wednesday that the killing was ordered by the former chief of military intelligence.

Chen Chi-li, leader of the United Bamboo gang, said he was told by Vice Adm. Wang Hsi-ling, chief of military intelligence, “to kill Liu, because Liu was a traitor to our country.” Chen said Wang told him that Liu was working as a double agent for China.

Liu, 51, a naturalized American, was shot to death Oct. 15 in the garage of his home in Daly City, a suburb of San Francisco. Accused killers Chen, 41, and Wu Tun, 35, a Bamboo gang member, are being tried in Taiwan because the Taiwan government has no extradition treaty with the United States. A third suspect in the murder, Tung Kuei-sen, is still at large.

“Wang told me at first to teach Henry Liu a lesson, because he had written bad things about our country and President Chiang Ching-kuo,” Chen told the court.

“But in a later meeting, Wang called Liu a traitor. He said he was trained as an undercover agent for Taiwan, but later betrayed several of our agents operating in mainland China to the Chinese Communists.”

Wang and two other intelligence officials have been arrested in connection with the case and face a separate trial by a military tribunal.

However, Judge Chao Kung-heng told the defendants that Vice Adm. Wang denied their charge when he questioned Wang before the trial. The judge said Wang admitted that he had recruited Chen as an agent and gave him training on how to collect intelligence information from China.

“But Wang said the training his bureau gave you never included any lessons on how to murder or assassinate,” the judge told Chen.

Chen testified that he became sympathetic to Liu after reading a dossier on the writer provided by the intelligence bureau and decided not to carry out Wang’s order. Instead, Chen testified, he told Wu and Tung, who carried out the crime, only to “teach (Liu) a lesson.”

He told them “not to kill Liu or cripple him.”

“I asked them to make sure the lesson would put Liu in bed for at least a week,” he said.

After Chen completed his testimony, he was led out of the courtroom and Wu was brought in to testify.

Wu backed up Chen’s allegation that Wang ordered Liu killed because he had given information to Communist authorities in Peking.

Wu said Liu was killed when he struggled with his assailants. He said he fired one shot at Liu and Tung then fired two more shots.

The first day of the trial was a preliminary hearing, during which the two defendants and witnesses were questioned. It will be followed by a debate session, also known as the “proper trial,” when cross-examination and lawyers’ presentations and arguments will be held.

The commissioned judge who conducted the hearing session will be joined by a presiding judge and an associate judge for the proper trial. There are no jury trials in Taiwan, which has been under martial law since 1949. The defendants could be executed if convicted.

Chen and Wu were driven to court from prison in closed vans, escorted by a convoy of troops and policemen. The courthouse was ringed by more then 100 police and spectators and reporters were searched before they were allowed into the courtroom.

The two were arrested last November in a major anti-crime crackdown unrelated to the killing.

Liu was a journalist and author whose writings often were critical of the Taiwan government. Among his works was an unflattering biography of Taiwan President Chiang.

Liu’s widow, Helen, and friends have maintained that Liu was assassinated at the direction of Taiwan government officials because of his writings. The possible involvement of Taiwan government officials in the killing also has strained relations between the United States and Taiwan.

Helen Liu has denied that her husband was a spy, and U.S. government officials say that while Liu informally provided information on his travels and observations to Taiwan, China and the FBI, he was not considered an intelligence agent.

The Taiwan government has repeatedly denied official complicity in the murder. However, Vice Adm. Wang; his deputy, Hu Yi-min, and the deputy chief of the bureau’s third department, Chen Hu-men, were arrested Jan. 15 and held without bail pending investigation.

Foreign Minister Chu Fu-sung told Parliament that the three will be indicted and tried in “a short period of time.” However, the government has so far not disclosed what charges, if any, have been leveled against the intelligence officials.