It has been just over three weeks since the Supreme Court turned down the appeal of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (
But there is still no sign of him beginning his sentence.
Since the ruling, Chiu has been the beneficiary of three court orders extending his freedom, the latest from the Kaohsiung branch of the High Court delaying the beginning of his sentence, citing the need to give him enough time to take care of personal matters.
This strange series of events since Chiu's final appeal was rejected is comparable to the early death of a Hollywood screen legend, with sympathetic friends gathering around with flowers, paying tribute to their unfortunate colleague and complaining about harsh injustice.
Meanwhile, the to-ing and fro-ing between the different branches of the judiciary over when Chiu should actually commence his incarceration is verging on the farcical.
In the meantime, Chiu has used this hiatus to full effect, taking advantage of his status as a legislator to complain that the case and his conviction were the result of "political intervention," and that the government wants to see him and his particular brand of political muckraking off the scene in the run-up to the legislative and presidential elections.
Chiu's supporters have also alleged the government was somehow involved in his conviction, out of revenge for the part he played in the indictments of the president's son-in-law Chao Chien-ming (
Chiu has been quoted as saying that what worries him most is the welfare of his three children and who will take care of them while he is in prison. Maybe he should have thought about that before he jumped atop that sound truck and rammed the Kaohsiung District Court gate while shouting ridiculous revolutionary slogans and injuring eight police officers in the process.
It is unlikely that Chiu spared a minute's thought for the welfare of the children of the police officers he was trying to mow down.
Chiu may be a legislator and enjoy the many privileges that come with the position, but he committed a crime and has been found guilty. And dispute it as he has, he cannot escape the fact that his crime -- unlike so many of the accusations he throws around in the run-up to elections -- was caught on camera and broadcast around the nation for everyone to see.
All Chiu's pre-jail shenanigans have done is once again demonstrate the urgent need to reform a legal system that is a holdover from the authoritarian period and treats legislators like royalty.
Chiu, like any other convicted criminal, should have been whisked away to a cell the moment his final verdict was handed down.
But supporters of Chiu and bad legislative behavior generally need not fret. Because even though his daily bulletins accusing pan-green candidates of various crimes will be missing in the run-up to the next legislative and presidential elections, there will be no shortage of lawmakers eager to take his place.
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