Rational discussion and calm tempers are needed when discussing whether to grant former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) medical parole and the issue should be considered from a professional, instead of political, point of view, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday.
Addressing Chen’s issue in a lengthy post on his Facebook page, Ma said that medical parole for the former president is a legal and medical issue, and not a political one, and therefore should not be politicized.
Chen’s family members and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have urged the Ma administration to grant Chen medical parole, saying that the former president, who is serving a 17-and-a-half-year sentence for corruption, has become severely ill after he started serving time in Taipei Prison.
Ma wrote that the issue is not convoluted as it seems, but that it has become complicated after political factors came into play.
After inmates are granted medical parole, they may stay in hospital or their own home during the recuperation process and the freedom allotted them is very much like that of parolees, Ma said.
Commenting on the difference between medical parole and sending a prisoner to an outside hospital under armed escort, Ma said that an inmate visiting a hospital under armed escort is returned to prison after treatment to continue serving his or her sentence.
On the other hand, medical parole gives prisoners the freedom to visit a hospital for medical treatment or to rest at home without any prison officials overseeing their actions, and is usually reserved for those with serious health issues, Ma said.
It is because medical parole gives prisoners that previously suspended right of movement that it has set such a high standard, Ma said, adding that for prisoners to receive medical parole, their condition must be one that cannot be adequately treated by the prison’s medical staff, and even then the request has to be approved by the Ministry of Justice’s corrections agency.
Citing ministry statistics, Ma said that up to the end of last month, a total of 171 inmates had received medical parole, most of whom were unable to care for themselves.
Data showed that 44 percent of the 171 had late-stage cancer, while others included people who were half-paralyzed because of cerebrovascular diseases, needed breathing masks due to cardiopulmonary diseases, or suffered kidney or liver failure, he said.
Medical parole for Chen can only be considered when professional doctors examine him and they confirm that he needs better medical treatment than that available in prison, Ma wrote.
“If we do not have professional doctors confirm that Chen is indeed ill, it would be like giving Chen parole, which is illegal,” Ma said.
Separately yesterday, the ministry said if Chen does not meet the standards for medical parole, then political pressure should not be laid on the prison, asking it to disregard the law and give Chen medical bail.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS