Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and a group of physicians and lawyers yesterday urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to put imprisoned former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) under house arrest, saying that Chen’s life is in danger because of health complications.
“Chen’s body, mind and spirit have been devastated by being locked up in prison for more than 1,500 days and by various illnesses. The best and the only way for him to fully heal is to give him a normal life, allowing him to go home and spend time with his family,” Lu told a press conference yesterday.
The former president, who is serving an 18-and-a-half-year sentence for corruption, has been staying in Taipei Veterans General Hospital for treatment for severe depression, sleep apnea and Parkinson’s disease.
Lu said she has printed 100,000 postcards and launched a postcard-sending campaign, in an effort to put pressure on Ma.
The DPP also made the same appeal to Ma on Jan. 30.
The former vice president said that Ma, then serving as former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) secretary, had helped arrange a meeting with New York University professor Jerome Cohen in March 1985 for her when she was serving time in prison as a political prisoner.
“I want to express my appreciation for Ma’s assistance even to this day and I also expect Ma to show the same compassion to Chen and let the former president go home,” Lu said.
Taipei Veterans General Hospital physician Kuo Cheng-deng (郭正典), who was on a medical team made up of physicians who treated Chen, said that Chen’s health was a matter of serious concern.
Kuo, who regularly met with Chen in the hospital, said the former president’s spirit was affected by the DPP’s loss in the presidential election in January last year because he said that his chance of fair trials and of receiving justice would be slim during Ma’s second term.
Being stripped of an opportunity to leave his cell and work by Taipei Prison, which cited security concerns for the decision, and spending 23 hours every day in a cell without a table and a bed under video surveillance have also contributed to Chen’s deteriorating health, Kuo said, adding that Chen often talked about death and suicide.
“We are not here today talking about a medical parole or moving Chen to a hospital in Kaohsiung so that he could be closer to his family. We are talking about having him home with his family so he could at least have a normal environment in which to recover from his mental breakdown,” Kuo said.
“I would predict that if Chen is kept in his current environment, the worst-case scenario could happen before Ma leaves office in 2016,” Kuo said.
Chen, who has lost his balance and often falls, could be killed by an unlucky fall, Kuo said.
Chen’s lawyer Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍) accused Ma of a lack of humanity and respect for Chen as Ma has never visited the former president.
“While Chen was a political enemy, Ma should pay tribute to his predecessor as a president. That is what he should do as a person. But Ma never did,” Cheng said.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,
RSS