The head of the Taipei Prison yesterday said there was no need for former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to receive medical treatment outside the prison, even though he has recently complained about feeling unwell.
Fang Tze-chieh (方子傑) was responding to a call by Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), the son of the former president, for authorities to allow his father to leave jail to receive check-ups or treatment.
Chen Chih-chung, who visited his father at the prison earlier in the day, said doctors from the Taipei-based Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, who take care of the former president, said he had developed signs of coronary artery disease or even heart failure and should be treated outside prison.
PHOTO: YU JUI-JEN, TAIPEI TIMES
“Can the prison authorities take full responsibility should there be any undesired and unpredicted development [in my father] now that doctors have made the suggestion?” asked Chen Chih-chung, who is an elected member of the Greater Kaohsiung Council.
Fang told reporters that the former president had suffered from a headache for a few days because he took the wrong medicine, a problem that was resolved when doctors prescribed new medicine for him.
He said Chen Shui-bian’s physical condition did not merit the need for out-of-prison treatment.
“When there is such a need, we will do that,” Fang said.
On Nov. 11, the Supreme Court sentenced Chen to 11 years in prison for taking bribes in a land deal during his time in office and also gave him an eight-year sentence in another bribery case.
The former president maintains that his incarceration is the result of a political vendetta by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for his pro-independence views.
The rulings were the first final convictions in a string of corruption cases implicating Chen and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍).
The former president is serving a combined jail term of 17-and-a-half years at Taipei Prison in Kueishan, Taoyuan County.
Additional reporting by Staff Writer
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
REWRITING HISTORY: China has been advocating a ‘correct’ interpretation of the victory over Japan that brings the CCP’s contributions to the forefront, an expert said An elderly Chinese war veteran’s shin still bears the mark of a bullet wound he sustained when fighting the Japanese as a teenager, a year before the end of World War II. Eighty years on, Li Jinshui’s scar remains as testimony to the bravery of Chinese troops in a conflict that killed millions of their people. However, the story behind China’s overthrow of the brutal Japanese occupation is deeply contested. Historians broadly agree that credit for victory lies primarily with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-led Republic of China (ROC) Army. Its leader, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a
RSS