National Taiwan University Hospital physician Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), a member of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) private medical team, on Saturday called on the government to “let Chen go home,” saying that the incarcerated Chen’s condition is deteriorating.
Ko, who plans to run as an independent in the upcoming Taipei mayoral election, issued the call at an event organized by the Ketagalan Foundation, which was founded by Chen.
Ko said that the former president, who is serving a 20-year sentence for corruption at a prison in Greater Taichung, has to wear adult diapers due to urinary incontinence.
The physician had previously warned the government about health complications that Chen was suffering after sustaining brain damage and has urged President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration to commute Chen’s sentence to house arrest because his condition is unlikely to improve if he remains in prison.
Chen’s case is one of medical human rights, Ko said at the event, adding that removing the former president from jail would also benefit social harmony and reduce divisions over the issue.
Ko reiterated that all Chen was asking for was a fair trial, not amnesty or medical parole, and that he should not have been treated differently by the judiciary because he was once president.
Ko’s remarks came as he is waiting to see if his bid to become the “pan-green camp’s candidate” in the Taipei election will succeed.
Ko has been leading all pan-green camp aspirants in public opinion polls as an independent, but is awaiting a final “integration” with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) contenders, after he and the party reached a consensus that divisions in the pan-green camp would guarantee an easy victory for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate, former Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文).
The DPP has decided on a two-stage mechanism to pick a candidate to represent the pan-green camp that involves four DPP members competing in the first phase of the process in a public opinion poll that could be conducted this week, with the winner then pitted against Ko in stage two.
The four DPP aspirants are former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), lawyer Wellington Koo (顧立雄) and DPP lawmakers Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) and Pasuya Yao (姚文智).
Both Koo and Yao have claimed that they lead the four DPP contenders in support rates.
According to Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬), director of the DPP’s Department of Organization, the first stage is to be completed before May 14 and the second phase within a month, which means that the pan-green camp’s candidate will likely be announced in the middle of next month.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their
RSS