Independent Legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標) was yesterday escorted back to Taichung to begin his three-and-a-half-year jail sentence.
Taichung prosecutor Chang Yi-chin (張溢金) arrived at the Veterans General Hospital in Taipei in an ambulance to collect Yen, who is recovering from surgery on Wednesday last week. Yen will be housed in the Taichung prison’s hospital until doctors decide he can be transferred to a cell.
“We decided to pick him up in an ambulance out of consideration for his health,” said Hung Pei-ken (洪培根), spokesman for the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office. “He will be well taken care of by the prison hospital.”
Yen was originally to begin his jail sentence on July 23. He was taken to a hospital on July 22 following a “farewell party” with his staffers. Doctors said Yen suffered minor heart failure.
Prosecutors granted his request for a delay to the beginning of his prison sentence, pushing it back by three weeks to Aug. 13.
Yen, however, booked himself for surgery on Aug. 13 to remove a polyp from his throat and requested another delay, but the second request was declined.
The Supreme Court rejected Yen’s appeal on his conviction for illegal possession of firearms in June, upholding the three-and-a-half-year sentence.
The charges stem from an incident in 1996 that occurred shortly after Yen received a threatening telephone call.
His bodyguards fired at a car that he believed was following him, riddling the car with more than 40 bullets.
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