The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan yesterday lambasted President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration for its treatment of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), while calling for medical parole for Chen.
In a press conference yesterday, Presbyterian Church in Taiwan General Assembly moderator Pusin Tali (布興大立) said that Chen, serving an 18-and-a-half-year prison term on corruption charges, has been imprisoned for 1,000-odd days at Taipei Prison, where he shares a 1.3 ping (4.29m2) cell with another inmate and is under 24-hour surveillance.
Treating any criminal like this is maniacal, no matter whether regarding it in terms of human rights or from the perspective of the judiciary, he said.
“The government is treating A-bian [Chen’s nickname] like a prisoner of war,” Tali said, adding that the Ma administration was not respecting Chen’s human rights.
Tali also questioned the sudden change of judges presiding over Chen’s case, saying that it did not correspond to judicial propriety. He also alleged that the move was politically motivated.
Tali was referring to an event in 2009, when the Taipei District Court made a decision to “combine cases” and turned over the Second Financial Reform case in which Chen was implicated — then presided over by Taipei District Court Judge Chou Chan-chun (周占春) — to Judge Tsai Shou-shun (蔡守訓), who presided over the special secretaries case against the former president.
Tsai revoked Chou’s previous decision to release Chen without bail.
Reverend Lyim Hong-tiong (林芳仲) added that even former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) had not treated his enemies in such a harsh manner. He referred to the late general Chang Hsue-liang (張學良), saying that Chiang had only limited Chang’s movements to his house in Taichung and had not imprisoned him.
Lin said that the Ma administration should entertain the option of detaining Chen at his house, instead of in a prison.
“We do not wish to see Ma become more authoritarian and hope that he will listen to public opinion,” Lin said.
He added that if Ma respected life, he should allow Chen Shui-bian to be released on medical parole.
Meanwhile, the former president yesterday took leave of absence from the High Court hearing of his state affairs fund case, with his lawyer citing that A-bian was unable to narrate events in his own words.
To demonstrate that Chen Shui-bian’s stuttering would affect his ability to coherently defend himself, his lawyer imitated how A-bian had spoken to him about the court hearing.
The lawyer asked the court to cease hearing the case on the grounds that his client should not be over-stimulated, citing Article 294 of the Criminal Procedural Act (刑事訴訟法), which states that if a defendant is unable to be present at court because of illness, the court should suspend hearing the matter until the defendant can appear in court.
In response, the collegiate bench presiding over the case said that the opinions of medical experts should be taken into consideration in deciding whether to halt the hearings or not. It added that it has already sent a letter to the Taipei Veterans General Hospital asking Chens doctor to report on his health.
The doctor’s response would form the prime basis for a decision on whether to halt all hearings of the case, the court said, adding that it is willing to cancel a hearing scheduled for March 19.
Additional reporting by Yang Kuo-wen
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS