Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is to appear in district court for four straight days this week, including Friday when the court will hold a hearing on whether he will remain in detention.
Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) of the Taipei District Court has called the former president to appear as a defendant in his embezzlement and corruption trials from Tuesday to Thursday.
On Wednesday, Chen’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) will also be appearing in court to be questioned on the family’s alleged money laundering activities.
PHOTO: CNA
It will be the first time that father and son face each other in court.
Although Chen Shui-bian’s lawyers had previously asked to call Chen Chih-chung as a witness, Chen Shui-bian later retracted the request, saying he did not want a face-to-face confrontation with his son in court.
The former president’s current detention expires on July 25. The court has scheduled a detention hearing on Friday to determine whether he will remain at the Taipei Detention Center in Tucheng (土城), where he has been detained since Dec. 30.
Since his last detention hearing on May 7, the former president has refused to speak in his own defense and has declined to answer any of Tsai’s questions in court, saying that he was doing this to protest what he calls an unfair judicial system.
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