The fate of jailed former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) request for medical parole is to be decided by noon today, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said yesterday.
Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) pledged that the decision would be made public at about noon on the first workday of the year — after a 10-member assessment team headed by Agency of Corrections Director Wu Sen-chang (吳憲璋) reaches its final determination.
He added that a hunger-strike protest carried out by former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) — who was hospitalized on Thursday — would not be taken into consideration.
It was widely expected that Chen Shui-bian would be released on medical parole on New Year’s Eve.
However, the ministry did not reach a decision, saying that traffic congestion prevented some important documents from reaching the agency headquarters before the work day ended.
It added that it faced staff vacancies during the long holiday weekend.
The ministry’s explanation has been widely dismissed by political pundits and netizens as an excuse to delay releasing Chen Shui-bian.
A survey conducted by the Chinese-language Apple Daily newspaper found that 74.1 percent of respondents perceived the ministry’s explanation as a “lame excuse.”
Chen Shui-bian, who was president from 2000 to 2008, has served more than six years of a 20-year sentence for corruption, but his health has been rapidly declining over the past few years, with symptoms such as loss of motor control and incontinence.
A team of doctors has recommended his release on medical parole, given his worsening conditions.
As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft. The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft. The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
Some foreign companies are considering moving Taiwanese employees out of China after Beijing said it could impose the death penalty on “die-hard” Taiwanese independence advocates, four people familiar with the matter said. The new guidelines have caused some Taiwanese expatriates and foreign multinationals operating in China to scramble to assess their legal risks and exposure, said the people, who include a lawyer and two executives with direct knowledge of the discussions. “Several companies have come to us to assess the risks to their personnel,” said the lawyer, James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based partner at the Perkins Coie law firm. He declined to identify
BOLSTERING DEFENSE: The explosive is 40 percent more powerful than those in use and could be deployed for Hsiung Feng II and III missiles, a government source said The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has developed a polycyclic nitroamine explosive, commonly known as CL-20, which is the most powerful non-nuclear explosive known, a government source said yesterday on condition of anonymity. The institute has significantly improved explosive and rocket propellant research and development in recent years, the source said. A new factory was established in June 2022 with NT$540 million (US$16.6 million) in equipment installed, the source said. A central complex that would house 50-gallon (189 liters) and 300-gallon (1,136 liters) explosive mixer machines, as well as a storage device, was constructed in the factory, the institute said. The explosive is