High court rejects bail request for ex-Pres. Chen

The court rejected the bail on the grounds that Chen failed to signed the application paper his lawyer submitted on his behalf.

The court directly threw out the application without hearing a debate between the prosecution and the defense.

Chen, who has refused solid food for 15 days since his detention began, let doctors inspect his blood sugar levels and test result was normal, said Lee Ta-chu, deputy warden of the Taipei Penitentiary, where the ex-president has been jailed.

Neither would he agree to go out of his cell for the daily exercise time, Lee said.

But Chen took as much as 100 cc thin rice porridge, the prison official added.

In a poem, titled “For My Family,” he wrote in jail, Chen expressed the wish to die for the independence of Taiwan.

“The ambition to found an independent country is hung in midair,” Chen says in the poem made public by his office. “If I can’t walk out of the jail with my head held up high, I will die on the cross of Taiwanese history.”

Chen is being jailed on corruption charges, but he and his supporters have accused the pro-China government of political persecution.

In the 42-line verse, Chen apologizes to his wife, Wu Shu-chen, for failing to listen to her advise against him entering the world of “ruthless” politics.

He blames his ordeal on President Ma Ying-jeou and his administration.

“I am now a prisoner of the new master. I lament the capricious, cruel, ruthless and dark nature of politics,” Chen said in obvious reference to his successor from the ruling Kuomintang.

Chen, who is being held incommunicado, has asked to meet his wheelchair-bound wife, but prosecutors have rejected the request, reasoning that the former first lady is also a suspect in the corruption probe, according to media reports.

He request for a visit by former deputy, ex-Vice President Annette Lu, has been denied, the reports said.

Chen was arguing that Chiayi County Magistrate Chen Ming-wen was allowed a meeting with his wife during his hunger strike in jail, he reports said.

But Chiayi chief prosecutor Hung Kuang-hsuan, without commenting on the ex-president’s reported request, justified the prosecution’s decision on the magistrate’s case.

Hung said the magistrate’s wife was not a suspect, and the meeting did not violate the no visitation rules, as it was videotaped and closely monitored.

Justice Minister Wang Ching-feng yesterday said human rights must be protected during law enforcement officials’ actions.

She made the remarks while visiting Legislator Wong Chin-chun of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, who was injured during an anti-China demonstration that ended up in clashes with police earlier this month in Taipei.

Wong expressed worries about Taiwan backpedaling in human rights conditions, having seen the ex-president handcuffed in public during the process of his arrest.

Wang agreed that the handcuff issue needs to be discussed.

She said the handcuffs are meant to prevent a suspect from escaping or committing suicide.

She also urged Chen to stop the hunger strike.

Chen is being investigated for alleged money laundering and embezzlement of the presidential allowance.

Prosecutors believe Chen may have illegally amassed a huge fortune during his presidential stint.

He has admitted that his wife remitted US$21 million out of Taiwan, but maintains that the money was from his campaign funds.

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