Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu said Thursday that the government will definitely carry out executions of death row convicts once all their legal avenues have been exhausted. 'We will carry out the executions if no requirements for retrials, extraordinary appeals, or Constitutional interpretations are involved, ' Tseng said while fielding questions at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan's Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee. Legislator Wu Yu-sheng of the ruling Kuomintang said executions of death row inmates should begin right after the Lunar New Year holiday at the latest, to convince the public that the government has no plans to stop executions. The Justice Ministry executed four death row convicts April 30, the first executions since 2005. Since then, none of the country's 44 death row inmates have been executed. The lack of executions since 2005 drew attention earlier this year when then Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng insisted on promoting the abolition of capital punishment and refused to sign death warrants. Wang was forced to resign March 11 following an outcry from victims of violent crime and their families. Tseng, however, said he is not sure 'when and where the next executions will take place.' Wu also demanded that death row inmates and criminal felons should not be included on any list for sentence commutations. As the Republic of China will celebrate its centennial anniversary next year, there have been calls for penalty reductions as part of the celebrations. Tseng said his ministry 'has not received any instruction from President Ma Ying-jeou for such a sentence commutation program, ' and he added that it would take four to five months for his ministry to work out coping measures should the president decide to issue such a directive. Sentence reduction or amnesty falls under the jurisdiction of the president under Taiwanese law. 