President pardons Bunun hunter
HEALING TENSION: Tama Talum welcomed the pardon, while the Presidential Office said that it carried special weight amid efforts for transitional justice for Aborigines
By Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNA
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday pardoned a Bunun hunter charged in 2013 with killing protected animals, on the first anniversary of her second presidential term.
The pardon of Tama Talum, convicted in 2015 for killing a Reeves’ muntjac and a Formosan serow with a modified shotgun, is the first pardon of Tsai’s two terms since 2016 and the seventh since the enactment of the Constitution on Dec. 25, 1947.
Talum was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for possessing an illegal weapon and hunting protected species. He appealed, and in 2017, the Supreme Court suspended the hearing, but asked the Council of Grand Justices to review hunting regulations under the Controlling Gun
Constitutional Court issues mixed ruling on Indigenous hunting rights
05/07/2021 10:30 PM
An Atayal hunter. CNA file photo for illustrative purpose only
Taipei, May 7 (CNA) The Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that while laws on the types of guns Indigenous people can use to hunt and requiring them to apply in advance for permission to do so are valid in principle, certain aspects of how they are applied are unconstitutional.
In its ruling Interpretation No. 803 the court found that the requirement in the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act that Indigenous people use self-made guns is largely constitutional.
However, it said, several of the regulations governing the specifications of such guns are insufficient and must be amended within two years to protect Indigenous peoples right to hunt as part of their culture.
Council reviews Aboriginal hunting rights
TRADITIONS: The Council of Grand Justices is to issue an interpretation within one month on whether laws limiting hunting and firearms infringe on Aboriginal rights
By Wu Cheng-feng and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter,
with staff writer and CNA
Oral arguments began on Tuesday in a case that is to determine whether laws restricting hunting and firearms infringe on the constitutional rights of Aborigines.
The case stems from the August 2013 arrest of Bunun hunter Tama Talum, also known as Wang Guang-lu (王光祿), after he was found in possession of two dead protected animals and a shotgun.
The man from Taitung County’s Haiduan Township (海端) said during a trial that he hunted the animals for his ailing 94-year-old mother.
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