A prisoner sentenced to death attempted to commit suicide on Friday but doctors saved his life.
The prisoner, Chang Pao-hui (張胞輝), swallowed 13 batteries with drinking water in his cell in Hualien Prison but staff saw the incident on security cameras and intervened.
He was rushed to hospital where he underwent surgery.
He is thought to have been unable to bear the stress of waiting for his execution.
"I felt sorry and sad on hearing about the incident," Minister of Justice Morley Shih (施茂林) told a legislative judicial committee meeting yesterday
Chang's execution has been delayed by more than 20 months because the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has said it is trying to carry out as few executions as possible with the eventual goal of abolishing the death penalty.
Chang had attempted to commit suicide by swallowing chopsticks in a prison during his trail.
Prison official Ko Huang-ming (葛煌明) told reporters that while one of the batteries was in Chang's stomach, 12 batteries had lodged in his large and small intestines.
Ko said that Chang's life was not in danger after a three-hour operation to remove the batteries, adding that Chang had seemed emotional recently.
He also said Chang's family rarely visited him in prison.
In February 2003 Chang broke into a residence, robbing and murdering an elderly man and his girlfriend.
After he was caught, investigators discovered that Chang had also killed his own girlfriend, surnamed Chen, in 2002.
The Supreme Count handed down a final verdict in June 2005, maintaining a death penalty issued by the Taiwan High Court.
In January another condemned prisoner, Huang Chih-hsien (黃志賢), committed suicide in Hualien Prison by swallowing three batteries.
Huang had told prison staff it was unbearable having to wait for his delayed execution.
Ko said there are seven prisoners, including Chang, who have been sentenced to death at Hualien Prison, and the prison has been making efforts to ensure prisoners sentenced to death do not kill themselves.
Shih yesterday said "the ministry has not changed its goal of abolishing the death penalty in Taiwan."
There are a total of 24 prisoners nationwide who have been sentenced to death but have not been executed.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS