The Taipei District Court yesterday announced it would continue to detain former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who is currently hospitalized with several illnesses.
Taipei District Court spokesperson Huang Chun-ming (黃俊明) announced the decision late yesterday afternoon.
“The court has ruled to continue [Chen’s] detention because the reasons for his original detention still exist. The defendant’s [Chen] detention will be extended by two months, starting from May 26,” Huang said.
The reasons for Chen’s detention, as cited by the court, include the fear that Chen would collude with witnesses or try to abscond, and because Chen has been charged with serious crimes for which he could be sentenced to five years or more in prison if convicted.
After evaluating medical reports from the Banciao branch of Taipei County Hospital, where Chen is being treated, the district court said today’s hearing has been canceled.
Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) had scheduled today’s court date to summon Su Chih-cheng (蘇志誠), a top aide to former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), and former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) in the trial over Chen’s alleged embezzlement of the presidential “state affairs” fund.
The district court did not announce a new date.
The former president has been on hunger strike since Thursday after he returned to the Taipei Detention Center following his detention hearing. He appeared physically weak in court and later that day issued a statement saying he would not appeal any verdict in the case and would immediately dismiss his attorneys and stop calling witnesses.
Had he appeared in court today, Chen would have declared his decision to dismiss his lawyers directly to the judge, his lawyers said.
“He decided to dismiss his lawyers because he is very disappointed in the judicial system and he want to protest against the system,” said Shih Yi-ling (石宜琳), one of Chen’s attorneys.
“We will still urge him to be brave and face [the trial], because this is only the first trial and there are still second and third [trials] to come,” he said.
If Chen does dismiss his lawyers, the district court will arrange for a court-appointed attorney to represent him.
Chen has said he would not eat or drink until Sunday to show his support for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) rally scheduled for that day to protest the government’s China-leaning policies.
He has been on two hunger strikes since his incarceration, but ended them after his wife and family pleaded with him to start eating.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said she was “bored” by the former president’s hunger strikes.
“[He] has launched similar campaigns again and again. We all feel bored now. [This proves that] you cannot teach an old dog new tricks,” Lo said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS