An area previously set aside at Taichung Prison’s Pei Teh Hospital for the incarceration of former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) has become an exclusive area for her husband, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), during the extent of his stay at the prison, Taichung Prison authorities said.
Chen, serving a 20-year jail sentence for corruption, arrived at the prison’s hospital in Taichung at 7:20am on Friday after leaving Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taipei at 5:30am.
Taichung Prison authorities said the area was set aside by the Ministry of Justice for Wu in the event she was to serve a jail sentence on bribery charges.
Photo: CNA, provided by the Ministry of Justice
In 2011, the Taichung Prison authorities and China Medical University medical experts declared that Wu — who is paralyzed from the waist down — is unfit for prison and charged her son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), with her care while putting her under house arrest and barring her from leaving the country.
Taichung Prison deputy warden Chen Chin-feng (陳金鋒) said the entire area measures 243 ping (803m2), with the room housing the former president measuring 9.2 ping. In Taipei Prison, Chen Shui-bian had previously shared a 1.3 ping cell with another inmate.
Chen Chin-feng said the ward housing Chen Shui-bian at Pei Teh Hospital has a desk and bookshelf as requested.
Photo: CNA, provided by the Ministry of Justice
There are plants in the room and the walls have been decorated with paintings and examples of calligraphy, Chen Chin-feng said, adding that it also contained a fold-up bed for use by medical personnel.
Taichung Prison authorities said that the Pei-te Hospital has formed a medical team focusing on Chen Shui-bian, adding that the team included doctors from China Medical University Hospital and the Tai-chung Veterans General Hospital.
The Pei Teh Hospital has all the necessary departments and staff to care for prison inmates, as well as having a few other specialized areas, prison authorities said.
Aside from the recuperation ward Chen Shui-bian has been assigned to, the hospital has a ward for psychiatric patients, a tuberculosis ward, a residential area for the terminally ill with 68 beds, blood analysis labs with 15 beds available for patients on dialysis, two surgical operating theaters and a common outpatient area.
The prison said it would not limit how many times Chen Shui-bian receives visitors, nor how long they can stay.
Chen Chin-feng also said that there is about 100 ping of empty space in the facility for Chen Shui-bian to exercise, adding that the former president may watch television and read newspapers.
Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) said Chen Shui-bian is the first prisoner in the nation’s history to have such facilities.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but