A "magic healer" who claims she can produce medicine pills out of thin air is having trouble with her vanishing act.
Zhang Ying (
"I have no friends and relatives here, and I can barely survive with the money my husband has transferred to me," Chang, who is pregnant, told Taipei District Court Judge Huang Shao-hung (
Zhang's husband, a Taiwanese man, is currently living in the US.
The travel ban was ordered by the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office, which has charged Chang with fraud and practising medicine without a license.
Zhang came to Taiwan last December on an entry permit for visiting relatives here.
Huang yesterday denied Zhang's request, saying the ban must be upheld in order to guarantee her presence at her trial.
Zhang came to public attention in January when she demonstrated in front of TV cameras what she claimed was her "miraculous power" to "snatch medicine pills out of thin air."
But a local magician exposed her "miraculous power" as mere sleight of hand, also in front of TV cameras.
The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office indicted Zhang in April for using trickery to deceive six patients and for receiving compensation for the unlawful practice.
Zhang's friend, a Taiwanese woman, Hsieh Szu-tao (
Zhang said during yesterday's hearing that she had planned to have her baby in the US, where her family resides.
Those plans, however, have now been hampered by the ban on her departure.
Zhang insisted that she had merely told the patients to "keep" the "magic pills," not to take them.
"In some cases, the pills were given to me by a white-bearded old man, and in some cases I just got the pills unconsciously," she said, in an effort to demonstrate her possession of magical powers.
The 38-year-old also said she has exercised her "magic power" to treat three patients introduced by Hsieh, but she did not receive any financial compensation for the treatment.
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