After his release from custody, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) plans to be back in his office today.
In response to the court’s orders that he not travel and suggestion that he not make public statements, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) suggested that Chen should set up a blog to post his writings from his period in detention.
Gao said Chen had no blog, apart from some materials on the Ketagalan Academy Web site. Since Chen wrote a lot during his detention, Gao suggested a blog would be a suitable way for Chen to voice his thoughts.
A blog would not go against the court’s suggestion that Chen not mobilize the public over his court case, Gao said.
Gao said he had also read a book published by former National Science Council (國科會) deputy minister Hsieh Ching-jyh (謝清志) in which he discussed his own period in detention and the eventual court proceedings, which Gao said could help Chen with his own experiences.
Hsieh was held incommunicado in custody for 59 days after allegations surfaced surrounding a project to complete the Tainan Science-Based Industrial Park to reduce the impact of vibrations from the high-speed rail. He was found not guilty in July.
Gao and a number of other DPP legislators said they would meet today to discuss an appropriate time to visit Chen.
Chen was released from detention early on Saturday morning after a four-hour hearing. He was held incommunicado for 32 days without charge.
He was indicted on charges of embezzling government funds, money laundering and forgery along with 13 others, including his wife, son and daughter-in-law.
As prosecutors are seeking the “severest penalty,” legal experts say that Chen, the first former president to be indicted, could face life in prison if convicted.
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
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the