More than 150 supporters gathered outside the Taipei County Hospital in Banciao to demand the release of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who was in stable condition yesterday but still refusing to eat for the seventh day since being detained last Wednesday.
The hospital said it had no plans to force feed him and was evaluating when to send Chen back to the Taipei Detention Center in Tucheng (土城), Taipei County.
Chen is suspected of money laundering, taking bribes, forgery and embezzling NT$15 million (US$450,000) during his two terms in office. He has been held incommunicado without charge.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The former president has accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration of “political persecution” and of waging a “political vendetta” against him to curry favor with China.
Tainan County Councilor Chen Chao-lai (陳朝來) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) announced on Monday that he would mobilize some 400 supporters from Chen Shui-bian's hometown in Tainan, but only 150 showed up yesterday.
The supporters held placards and chanted slogans, “A-bian, jiayou,” referring to the former president by his nickname, and demanded his release. They were later dispersed by the police on the grounds that it was an illegal gathering.
Chen Shui-bian remained in stable condition yesterday after being intravenously fed at the hospital.
Yang Chang-bin (楊長彬), the hospital's deputy director, said that while Chen still refused to eat, his condition had improved.
The former president was conscious, his blood acidity has dropped and his X-ray scans were clear, Yang said.
Chen weighed 65.5kg with a heartbeat rate of 86 per minute, Yang said, adding however that Chen still suffered from minor bloating and that doctors found ketone reaction in Chen's urine.
Doctors will continue to treat him with nutritional supplements and other measures to prevent his health from deteriorating, Yang said.
Saying that Chen is still too weak to be released, Yang said the hospital would evaluate his condition and after consulting with the detention center, would decide how long Chen should remain hospitalized.
Asked when the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) will question Chen, SIP spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) said the former president's health outweighed everything and they would not consider questioning him until he was fit to do so.
Later last night, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) visited Chen Shui-bian at the hospital.
Meanwhile, Chen Shui-bian's brother, Chen Wen-shou (陳文狩), told reporters camped outside the family's house in Kuantian Township (官田) in Tainan County that his mother is over 80 years old and her health condition is unstable.
Her health has deteriorated since his brother was incarcerated, he said, adding that his mother made a trip to a hospital in Kaohsiung, where she is now under the care of his elder sister.
The former president's mother is suspected of allowing the former first family to use her name as a dummy account for money laundering. The SIP intended to question her on Monday, but she asked for a leave of absence because of poor health.
Chen Wen-shou said that his mother had not yet received further notice from the SIP, but she would answer the subpoena as soon as her health condition improved.
In other developments, Chiayi Count Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) of the DPP, who was sent to hospital on Monday night for treatment after staging a hunger strike since Nov. 11, still refused to eat yesterday.
Chen Ming-wen, who allegedly divulged the reserve price of a tender for a sewage processing plant in the county, was detained and held incommunicado since Oct. 28.
Chiayi Chief Prosecutor Hung Kwang-hsuan said yesterday that his fellow prosecutors would consider the request made by Chen Ming-wen's wife, Liao Su-hui (廖素惠), and his lawyer Liu Jung-yi (劉炯意) to allow him to have visitors.
Liao said she would persuade her husband in person to give up the hunger strike if prosecutors allowed her husband to receive visitors.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIMMY CHUANG
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS