Ex-President Chen ends his hunger strike: jail officials

Chen, who started drinking rice water on Wednesday, ate some rice porridge with some egg white Thursday night, said the officials at the Taipei Penitentiary.

The ex-president also had 500 cc of rice porridge and the white of a boiled egg, the officials said.

Doctors are evaluating Chen’s conditions before deciding when Chen can resume a full diet, they said.

He also came out of his cell during the exercise time, taking a walk and stretching a bit for 15 minutes, they added.

Chen had refused solid food since early this month when he was taken into custody on corruption charges, which he and supporters claim are politically motivated.

He had also refused to leave his cell during the exercise time.

Earlier this week his office made public a poem he had written in jail, in which he expressed the wish to die in martyrdom.

Legislator Lai Ching-te of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party said Chen was not violating his previous vow of not eating.

Lai, who is a medical doctor, said hunger striking does great harm to the body, and therefore Chen is resuming eating in line with human rights considerations.

He said if would be unsympathetic for anyone to criticize Chen for eating again.

DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei said the ex-president was hunger striking in order to give Taiwan a wake-up call concerning the problems with its human rights, legal systems and democracy. She said any such wake-up calls would be meaningless if one died for this. She urged the former president to take good care of his health so that he can fight a long-term battle against injustice.

Former DPP Legislator Luo Wen-jia said the detention of Chen, as well as two former presidential aides, Ma Yung-cheng and Lin Teh-hsun, was groundless.

Luo, who was also interviewed by prosecutors in connection with Chen’s case, said prosecutors must respect human rights in their investigation.

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