Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) mother made a plea for her son’s release yesterday, one day before the Taiwan High Court is expected to decide whether to continue his detention.
Attending a funeral for the former president’s uncle in Tainan, Chen Lee Shen (陳李慎) said: “My son did nothing wrong. Why has he been detained so long?”
“As a mother, I feel deeply sad. I cannot eat during the day and cannot sleep at night,” she said.
PHOTO: CNA
Chen Shui-bian has been detained for more than 500 days and his current term of detention is scheduled to end on April 23.
Teng Chen-chiu (鄧振球), the presiding judge in the case, said during Friday’s hearing that the court intended to make a decision today.
Teng had said the Chen family would have to remit NT$700 million (US$21 million) to a designated account if the former president were to have any chance of being released on bail.
Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), said of the judge’s remark that he and his family had done everything they could to have the money from his family’s Swiss bank accounts remitted to Taiwan and that it was up to the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) to decide when the transfer would take place.
The Taiwan High Court has announced it will deliver a verdict for the second trial on June 11.
The Taipei District Court sentenced Chen Shui-bian and his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) to life in prison in September after handing down a guilty verdict in the first trial against the former first couple and 11 others.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
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Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial