The Taipei District Court ruled yesterday to extend former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) incarceration at the Taipei Detention Center for two more months.
“The court ruled to extend [Chen’s] detention by two months starting from July 26,” Taipei District Court spokesperson Huang Chun-ming (黃俊明) said.
The court cited several of the reasons used in its previous detention rulings — the concern that Chen would collude with witnesses, destroy evidence or try to abscond, and because he has been charged with serious crimes that could bring him a prison term of seven years or more.
PHOTO: PATRICK LIN, AFP
However, it also cited Chen’s “interference” with the case by talking to the public through friends and colleagues who visited him at the detention center.
The ruling said that even behind bars, Chen is capable of exerting pressure on the judiciary, so it was difficult to imagine how much damage he could do to the judiciary if he were not detained.
The court believed there were no other means, such as bail or placing restrictions on residence, to substitute for detention, Huang said.
Chen has been held at the detention center since Dec. 30. This is the third time Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) has ruled to extend his detention.
Chen has declined to speak in his defense or answer questions since May 7 to protest what he calls an unfair judicial system, except to speak briefly at his detention hearing last Friday.
In response to Chen supporters saying they would “shut the court down” if his detention was extended, Huang said the court respects the protesters’ right to freedom of speech, and it would arrange security for its officials if necessary.
Judicial Reform Foundation executive director Lin Feng-jeng (林峰正) criticized the ruling, saying the court’s action was “excessive” and the reasons for the detention had ceased to exist.
Lin said the court cited new reasons for detaining Chen because “they know the original reasons have become too flimsy.”
He urged the judges and prosecutors to find other means of preventing Chen from absconding because detention should be used as a last resort.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said the court ruling was unacceptable. The party believed there was no need to keep Chen in custody, and the latest extension went against the consensus of legal professionals, he said.
Cheng said the court had heard all witnesses in the case, so Chen would have no need to conspire with them. The DPP also believed that as a former president guarded by security agents around the clock, Chen would have no chance of fleeing if released, he said.
He criticized President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for signing the UN’s International Convention on Civil and Political Rights into law earlier this year, but then ignoring reform of the legal system.
In related news, Chen was recently diagnosed with tendonitis in his right foot. The detention center said doctors put a cast on his foot on Saturday.
The doctors said the tendonitis was caused by an abnormal bone growth, and that Chen had also been prescribed medication for the condition.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique