Taiwan’s ailing former president Chen Shui-bian has been freed from prison on medical parole after serving six years of a 20-year sentence for corruption during his presidency.
The 64-year-old, who led Taiwan from 2000 to 2008, was released from a prison hospital due to his “medical condition”, said deputy justice minister Chen Ming-tang.
“His condition will be reviewed monthly and may be extended if his medical status does not improve,” he said.
“The terms of his release do not limit his activities, but it is to be used predominantly for medical recuperation.”
According to Taiwan correctional agency regulations in relation to medical parole, the former president is free to move about, greet the public and publish articles to support himself.
Chen’s illness remains undiagnosed, but his supporters say it involves nerve degeneration, sleep apnea, and could be life threatening.
He was transferred to a prison hospital in April 2013 after being diagnosed with severe depression, suspected Parkinson’s disease and other conditions.
He attempted suicide in June of that year.
“The [independent] medical team think Chen needs to leave his present location where his medical treatment is not helpful to his condition,” Chen Ming-tang said.
Chen Shui-bian was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 for money-laundering and bribery, a term reduced to 20 years after appeals.
He insists that the charges against him are part of a politically motivated vendetta by the current government in retaliation for his eight years in power when he promoted the idea of Taiwan declaring its independence from China.
His former vice president, Annette Lu, has been on hunger strike in an effort to draw attention to his situation.
She was admitted to hospital on New Year’s Day suffering from symptoms related to her fast.
Local media said Chen travelled directly to his family home in the southern city of Kaohsiung upon his release.
Break in the single party state
The former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leader was the first opposition leader in Chinese history to ascend to the top job and ended 50 years of Kuomintang (KMT) party rule in Taiwan, officially titled Republic of China, when he came to power in 2000.
For half a century the island was ruled, as it is now, by the KMT – China’s former ruling Nationalist Party who fled the mainland after Mao Zedong’s Communist revolution.
Chen was the first leader committed to full independence from China, though neither he nor any Taiwan government have ever declared it officially.
Even though the island has ruled itself since its split in 1949, China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and threatens to take it by force if it were to push for independence.
Relations with China have warmed under current KMT stalwart and Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou, with direct trade and flights being the hallmark of his six years in power.
But the KMT’s dramatic election defeat at mayoral and regional polls in November has signalled the public’s growing fears over Chinese influence on the island.
Chen Ming-tang said the former president’s release was “nothing to do with the result of the election”, and there has been no discussion of a full pardon.
Flagraising anger
China has protested to the United States after Taiwan’s de facto embassy hoisted a Taiwanese flag on New Year’s Day, the first time in 36 years since Washington switched recognition from Taiwan to Beijing in 1979.
Its foreign ministry urged the US to respect the “One China” policy – that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of it.
The US state department said it had not been notified in advance of the ceremony and that it was inconsistent with US policy.
State spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the US “did not know about the flag raising in advance”.
“No US government personnel attended the event in any capacity,” she said.
More than 100 people attended the ceremony on New Year’s Day, including Taiwan’s top envoy to the US, Shen Lyushun, the China Post said, citing the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington.
Beijing lodged a protest with the US in December after president Barack Obama signed legislation authorising the sale of up to four Perry-class guided missile frigates to Taiwan.
The US is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act in maintaining Taiwan’s self defence capabilities to “help maintain peace, security, and stability in the Western Pacific”, including intervening militarily if China attacks or invades the island.
AFP/Reuters
Original story http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-06/former-taiwan-president-chen-shui-bian-on-medical-parole/6002650
