The Ministry of Justice said yesterday it did not give former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) special treatment by hospitalizing him on Saturday.
Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) told reporters during a visit to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus on Friday that whether Chen was allowed to seek medical help at a hospital escorted by law enforcement authorities depended on the assessment of doctors at the detention center and that she could not interfere in the case.
After Chen was hospitalized on Saturday, Wang made a few telephone calls to legislators to notify them of the matter.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
This, however, did not constitute political meddling with judicial affairs, as several pundits have alleged on TV talk shows, she said a statement issued by the ministry.
On Thursday, after appearing weak at a court hearing to decide whether his detention should be extended, Chen issued a statement saying he would not appeal any verdict in the case and would immediately dismiss his attorneys and stop calling witnesses.
He also said he would not eat or drink until next Sunday to show his support for the DPP rally scheduled for that day to protest the government’s China-leaning policies.
Chen has been on two hunger strikes since his incarceration, but ended them after his wife and family pleaded with him to start eating.
If the former president is physically able to appear in court on his next trial tomorrow, he could directly inform Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) of his decision to dismiss his lawyers.
Su Chih-cheng (蘇志誠), a top aide to former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), and former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成), have been summoned for tomorrow’s session, where they will be questioned on their handling of the presidential “state affairs fund.”
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry