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.
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