Following the announcement of her intention to visit imprisoned former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to mark International Human Rights Day on Wednesday next week, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday gave President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) an ultimatum — if he does not release Chen by Christmas Day, she would go on a hunger strike until Chen is released.
Chen is serving a 20-year term for accepting bribes during his eight-year presidency. Suffering from deteriorating health, Chen has not been granted amnesty or home care by Ma, despite repeated appeals by medical experts, human rights advocates and Chen’s supporters.
At a news conference held yesterday at the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Taipei office, Lu announced a list of “visitors” that she hopes will accompany her on Wednesday, including Taoyuan County commissioner-elect Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), Changhua County commissioner-elect Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷), Chiayi mayor-elect Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲), Penghu County commissioner-elect Chen Kuang-fu (陳光復) and Greater Tainan Deputy Mayor Yen Chun-tso (顏純左).
Many of the DPP county commissioners invited have not yet replied, but it is hoped that they would answer the call and seek to appeal to what little conscience Ma has left and save Chen Shui-bian, Lu said.
The past six years of imprisonment have been hard on the former leader and he is very ill, Lu said, adding that given his poor health, the legal cases in which Chen Shui-bian is involved are in limbo because of his inability to appear in court due.
Chen Shui-bian’s condition can wait no longer and the Ma administration should seek to release him on medical parole by Wednesday at the earliest, Lu said, adding that if Ma does decide to release him, she would greet Chen Shui-bian in front of Pei Te Prison.
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A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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