Former chief presidential guard General Chen Tsai-fu (
Chen told the Taiwan High Court that the president's vehicle and driver usually undergo a thorough security check by the National Security Bureau. Once the vehicle is cleared, nobody is allowed to approach it before the mission.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
"However, for President Chen Shui-bian (
"I did not know and meet Kuo Yu-hsin (
On why the president and the vice president rode in an open vehicle, Chen Tsai-fu said that the DPP picked the vehicle, not the bureau.
Chen Tsai-fu made his remarks at the hearing presided over yesterday morning by High Court Judge Wu Ching-yuan (
In addition to hearing testimony from the former chief presidential guard, Wu also summoned senior police officer Chang Chun-po (
Wu asked for more detail about the process of medical treatment for the president and vice-president after the assassination attempt.
Chang told the hearing that the president did not at first realize that he was shot and bleeding. Chang was standing next to the president on the Jeep at the time.
"[The president] turned to me and said that he felt `uncomfortable in the stomach,'" Chang said. "He then realized immediately that he was bleeding and that it was actually a gunshot wound."
Wu ordered the hearing to be closed to the public at 11:20am, when witnesses were to go into more detail about the medical treatment given to the president and the vice president after the shooting.
The hearing is expected to finish before the end of the month.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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