Death sentence reduced to life for killing of Malaysian student

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s High Court on Thursday reduced the death sentence of Liang Yu-chih (梁育誌) to life imprisonment in a second retrial.

Liang, who was convicted of the killing of a Malaysian female university student at Chang Jung Christian University, had previously been sentenced to death in both the first trial and the first retrial. Detailed reasoning of the high court decision has yet to be released and further appeals are possible.

The case dates back to October 2020, when the 24-year-old Malaysian surnamed Chung (鍾) was walking to her dormitory close to the viaduct of the Taiwan Railways Corporation Shalun Line. She disappeared after walking along the underpass beneath the viaduct.

Liang later confessed to using a rope to strangle Chung and drag her to his car. After murdering the student, Liang abandoned her body in a mountainous area of Kaohsiung City's Alian District.

In the first trial, Ciaotou District Court sentenced Liang to death for attempted rape, rape-murder, robbery-murder, and abandonment of a corpse. On appeal, the Kaohsiung branch of the High Court upheld the death sentence in the second instance.

The case was later appealed to the Supreme Court, which overturned and remanded the rape-murder charge. The convictions for abandonment of a corpse and attempted rape were upheld and finalized.