Former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), who is paralyzed from the waist down, must be taken to a prison hospital to undergo a fitness evaluation before a decision can be made as to whether she will be incarcerated, Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) said yesterday.
Speaking at a pre-Lunar New Year holiday news conference, Tseng said the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office has sent Wu’s medical records to Pei Teh Hospital — the medical facility connected to Taichung Prison — to facilitate the assessment.
“Pei Teh’s management told us that Wu’s ability to deal with daily activities can be assessed only after she is taken to the hospital,” Tseng said.
Asked if the ministry has a timetable for Wu to begin serving her sentence, Tseng said it would respect the judgment of the medical professionals conducting the evaluation and abides by the law in dealing with each case.
Wu and her husband, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), were each sentenced to a total of 19 years in prison by the Supreme Court last November for taking bribes in a land deal and in relation to a personnel appointment case during Chen’s presidency from 2000 to 2008.
The Taiwan High Court ruled last month that Wu and Chen should each serve 17-and-a-half years.
Chen was moved to Taipei Prison in Taoyuan County on Dec. 2 to begin serving his sentence, after having been held at a detention center since late 2008.
Judicial authorities are still considering how Wu should serve her sentence, given that she has been paralyzed from the waist down since being repeatedly run over by a truck in 1985 and is confined to a wheelchair.
At a separate setting yesterday, a Taichung Prison secretary, Lin Chih-hsiung (林志雄), said that a medical team at Pei Teh Hospital had already undertaken an initial review of Wu’s medical records.
“As Wu’s medical records are extensive, the team has suggested that she be taken to the hospital for an in-person evaluation of her fitness for incarceration,” Lin said, adding that the prison has informed the ministry of the medical team’s advice.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS