Former defense minister Lee Tien-yu has died.

He was 79.

According to the military, Lee passed away from pneumonia and other
complications at the Tri-Service General Hospital in Taipei.

Lee was in China's Shandong province in 1946 and came to Taiwan with his
father during the Kuomintang's retreat to the island.

He was graduate of the Republic of China Air Force Academy, and rose up the
ranks to become commander-in-chief of the Air Force, chief of the general
staff, and military strategy advisor to the president.

Lee served as defense minister under former President Chen Shui-bian in 2007.

He was one of several retired military officials given demerits in 2012 for
the wrongful execution of Chiang Kuo-ching -- a 21-year-old Air Force private
who was found guilty by a military court of raping and murdering a 5-year-old
girl in 1996.

Chiang was exonerated in 2011, with the Control Yuan finding that the
military had used torture to extract a false confession.