The head of the Taipei Prison yesterday said there was no need for former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to receive medical treatment outside the prison, even though he has recently complained about feeling unwell.
Fang Tze-chieh (方子傑) was responding to a call by Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), the son of the former president, for authorities to allow his father to leave jail to receive check-ups or treatment.
Chen Chih-chung, who visited his father at the prison earlier in the day, said doctors from the Taipei-based Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, who take care of the former president, said he had developed signs of coronary artery disease or even heart failure and should be treated outside prison.
PHOTO: YU JUI-JEN, TAIPEI TIMES
“Can the prison authorities take full responsibility should there be any undesired and unpredicted development [in my father] now that doctors have made the suggestion?” asked Chen Chih-chung, who is an elected member of the Greater Kaohsiung Council.
Fang told reporters that the former president had suffered from a headache for a few days because he took the wrong medicine, a problem that was resolved when doctors prescribed new medicine for him.
He said Chen Shui-bian’s physical condition did not merit the need for out-of-prison treatment.
“When there is such a need, we will do that,” Fang said.
On Nov. 11, the Supreme Court sentenced Chen to 11 years in prison for taking bribes in a land deal during his time in office and also gave him an eight-year sentence in another bribery case.
The former president maintains that his incarceration is the result of a political vendetta by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for his pro-independence views.
The rulings were the first final convictions in a string of corruption cases implicating Chen and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍).
The former president is serving a combined jail term of 17-and-a-half years at Taipei Prison in Kueishan, Taoyuan County.
Additional reporting by Staff Writer
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