A US senator has asked Christopher Marut, director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), to visit former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in jail or hospital.
Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, said in a letter sent this week to Marut that Chen is suffering from severe depression and is undergoing psychiatric treatment at Taipei Veterans General Hospital.
It is an obvious attempt by Brown to draw more attention to Chen’s case and increase the pressure on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to grant medical parole for Chen, who is serving a 17-and-a-half-year sentence for corruption.
“Reduced to a shadow of his former fiery self, Chen stutters and slurs his speech, and cannot walk far without tripping over,” The Economist magazine reported earlier this month.
“The prison’s harsh standard of treatment, which falls well below international norms, is contributing to serious illness,” the magazine said.
Chen’s continued incarceration, The Economist said, was not only undermining Ma’s “now dangerously low popularity,” but also faith in Taiwan’s system of justice.
“As advocates for human rights, freedom, democracy and the rule of law around the world, it is critical that we continue to support Taiwan,” Brown wrote to Marut.
Brown urged Marut to read a recent independent medical report that details Chen’s failing health and concludes that “in any democracy” this would be sufficient cause for immediate medical parole on humanitarian grounds.
“I ask that you review the report and visit the former president at the appropriate time,” the letter said.
“Senator Brown is a friend of president Chen, whom he has met on multiple occasions in Taiwan over the past decade,” Formosa Association of Public Affairs president Mark Kao (高龍榮) said. “It is touching to see a US senator ... reach out across the globe to a friend in need.”
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
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
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
RSS