The Taipei Detention Center yesterday said it would keep a closer watch on former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) after the suicide of former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun.
The detention center said Chen may know about Roh’s suicide from TV and radio news reports.
Roh jumped to his death on Saturday morning from a cliff in the mountains.
His reputation as a clean politician who fought corruption was damaged a month ago after he was implicated in a graft scandal and questioned by prosecutors.
Roh’s suicide attracted widespread attention in Taiwan, with some expressing concerns that Chen, being in a similar situation, might contemplate suicide.
Not only have the two both been implicated in corruption cases, Roh and Chen share other traits that have drawn attention to the similarity. Both came from poor farming families and were human rights lawyers before going into politics.
In both cases, the graft scandals involved the families of the former presidents.
The detention center yesterday said it would keep a close watch on Chen. He appeared to be emotionally stable and went about his usual activities yesterday, it said.
“[Chen] read newspapers and watched TV in his room,” deputy warden Lee Ta-chu (李大竹) said.
The center stripped Chen temporarily of visitation privileges and confiscated his TV set and radio more than a week ago to punish him for refusing to eat.
Chen held his third hunger strike since being detained, this time in a show of support for a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) protest against government policies.
After Chen drank mishui, the liquid drawn from rice porridge, the center returned his TV and radio.
Chen has been detained at the Taipei Detention Center since Dec. 30 on charges including money laundering, embezzlement and corruption.
He was indicted on Dec. 12 on corruption charges involving nearly NT$500 million (US$14.68 million). He has repeatedly denied the allegations and called the trials a form of political persecution.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
RSS