Taiwan executed four people today, the justice ministry said, in the island's first cases of capital punishment since 2005 when the sentence became a sensitive political issue, Reuters reported. Four inmates convicted of crimes connected to a murder case were executed late on Friday, the ministry said in a statement, following years of fractious debate that saw the ministry's chief quit last month in protest. "The justice ministry gave death penalty orders to the four people on April 28 and the order was carried out on April 30," the one-line statement said. Former Justice Minister Wang Ching-feng and Amnesty International have urged Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou to scrap the death penalty. Abolition of the law, which is widely supported, could hurt the government ahead of November local polls. A further 40 inmates remain on death row, the ministry said on Friday. About 500 inmates were executed between 1987 and 2005.
