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Yunlin County commissioner’s health worsens

Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen’s (蘇治芬) hunger strike in protest against her indictment for corruption entered its fifth day yesterday. Her husband, retired National Taiwan University professor Huang Wu-hsiung (黃武雄), visited her at the hospital and urged her to take medication for stomach cramps.

Saying that his wife had shouldered the heavy cross of democracy and defended it with her life, Huang added he had told his wife to unload that cross and take care of her health. He said that Su only agreed to take the cramp medication after he brought out a photograph of their son.

Su, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), began her hunger strike on Tuesday, shortly after being detained over her alleged involvement in corruption connected to the construction of a county landfill project.

Prosecutors offered to release her on NT$6 million (US$183,000) bail on Wednesday, but she refused, saying that she did not have that kind of money.

“I told her to open her mouth — it was our son who was feeding her, and she obliged,” said Huang, who is suffering from two types of cancer. “I told her ‘be calm, be calm, don’t resist anymore.’”

Su would guard her reputation with her life and not eat anything until her innocence was proven, Huang said.

Huang said Su had told him in a weak voice that she was innocent.

The increasingly frail Su was rushed to the hospital from Yunlin County’s Prison Detention House on Friday after her refusal to eat caused her health to deteriorate.

After visiting Su in the hospital yesterday with a letter from former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄), Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) told Su’s supporters outside that the commissioner’s physical condition was not good.

To prevent the hospital from injecting glucose into her blood while she was asleep, Su had fought to stay awake, Chen said, adding that Su’s blood sugar level had plummeted to 58mg/dL, while the normal level on an empty stomach is 70mg/dL to 110mg/dL, and 120mg/dL after eating.

Chen said that as Su valued her reputation more than her life, and as a compatriot in her cause, she could not ask Su to eat.

Other DPP members, including former DPP chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and DPP caucus whip William Lai (賴清德), also visited Su.
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