Cheng Wen-tsan, DPP spokesman, said yesterday Chen has refused to take any food for 54 hours.

Su Chih-fen, magistrate of Yunlin, began her fast on Sunday right after she had been taken into custody. She is charged with taking a NT$5 million kickback in a landfill project.

“We came to learn,” Cheng said, “Chen has already written a will to his wife.” The magistrate of Chiayi was arrested on October 28 on charges of leaking insider information to a company which won a sewer project, and has since been detained.

“I am the Kuomintang’s War Criminal Number One,” Chen was quoted as writing in the will. “If the unexpected occurs while I am fasting,” he told his wife, “please be strong and raise our children yourself.” Tsai Ing-wen, DPP chairwoman, is seriously concerned about the health of the two magistrates, Cheng said. She protested against their unlawful detention.

“We demand prosecutors speed up their investigations,” the DPP spokesman said. “We also demand,” he added, “that prosecutors stop detaining people in order to force confessions.”

Only DPP officials were implicated in a spate of corruption scandals, Cheng said. No Kuomintang officials have been arrested and detained, albeit many are allegedly involved, the DPP spokesman added.