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Group protests former president’s detention

People mobilized by independent Kaohsiung City Councilor Cheng Hsin-chu show their support for former president Chen Shui-bian outside the Taipei Detention Center in Tucheng City, Taipei County, yesterday. PHOTO: CNA

Supporters of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Chiayi County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) yesterday rallied outside detention centers in Taipei and Chiayi counties to show their support.

Chen Shui-bian was sent to the Taipei Detention Center in Tucheng (土城), Taipei County, on Wednesday on charges of embezzlement, bribe-taking, money laundering and illegally removing classified documents from the Presidential Office.

For his part, Chen Ming-wen, of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was detained at the Chiayi Detention Center for alleged acts of corruption.

About 100 Kaohsiung residents mobilized by independent Kaohsiung City Councilor Cheng Hsin-chu (鄭新助) boarded buses to Taipei Detention Center yesterday to show their support for Chen Shui-bian.

Holding up banners, the supporters shouted “A Bian innocent” and “unfair justice” to protest against his detention.

Police were deployed to the site to control the crowd. No incidents were reported.

Meanwhile, DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday visited Chen Ming-wen at the Chiayi Detention Center.

Outside the detention center, a sit-in was staged by demonstrators as a show of support for Chen Ming-wen.

Deploring the fact that Chen Ming-wen was being held incommunicado without formal charges being made, Tsai said to the crowd: “This is a violation against human rights.”

“It should not happen in a democratic country,” she said.

Tsai also visited Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) at hospital yesterday where the county chief is recovering after an 11-day hunger strike.

Tsai said the party would nominate Su to run for re-election next year in Yunlin County despite her indictment on Friday on corruption charges.

After going on a hunger strike for 11 days to protest her detainment, Su was set free by the Yunlin District Court late on Friday night after she was indicted on corruption charges earlier the same day.

The court, finding there was no reason to keep Su in custody after the indictment was filed, allowed her to eb released, but required that she report any change in residence and barred her from leaving the country.

Su was charged with taking a total of NT$21 million (US$635,000) in bribes in two separate cases involving the operation of a county landfill and the expansion of the Yunlin branch of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.

Prosecutors recommended she be sentenced to prison for 15 years, deprived of her civil rights for eight years and fined NT$21 million.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIMMY CHUANG
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