President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration is coming under further attack from abroad for failing to grant medical parole to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Taiwan’s foreign and justice ministries said last week that Chen, who is serving an 18-and-a-half-year prison sentence for corruption, had been provided with the best living conditions and healthcare allowed under law and that he did not qualify for medical parole.
Ma administration officials also said that repeated calls by foreign officials for Chen’s medical parole resulted from a “misunderstanding” of the case.
Former US representative Tom Tancredo, who met with Chen in Taipei earlier this month, said yesterday that he “categorically rejected” claims that Chen’s health had improved.
“I hardly recognized president Chen when I met with him in the hospital,” Tancredo said.
“President Ma should resist the partisan demands of a few people on the fringe of his party and grant president Chen medical parole,” Tancredo added.
“Taiwan’s democracy should be above this kind of political score settling. There is no misunderstanding about it,” he said.
A US medical team that examined Chen in June said that statements from the Ma administration that Chen was receiving adequate medical treatment were “ludicrous.”
The team, including Ken Yoneda and Charles Whitcomb — both professors of medicine at the University of California — said in a joint statement that Chen’s imprisonment conditions were “substandard and inhumane.”
They said the conditions were a major contributing factor, if not the cause, of Chen’s current physical and mental problems.
Joseph Lin, the leader of the team, said that the conditions under which Chen was being held constituted a “gross miscarriage of justice and human rights.”
Lin said that in the Chen case, the Ma administration had dismissed the conclusions of former US government officials, various international organizations and a member of the European Parliament.
“I visited former president Chen in Taipei and I am convinced that he deserves better treatment,” Member of the European Parliament Hans van Baalen said.
“A medical parole is warranted, not only for the physical and mental health of Chen himself, but also to help Taiwan on the path towards political reconciliation,” said Van Baalen, who met Chen this month.
The Washington-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) is coordinating the drive by “foreign observers” to win better conditions for Chen.
FAPA President Mark Kao (高龍榮) said there was now “broad consensus” both within Taiwan and overseas about the need to grant Chen medical parole.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we