Ex-President Chen returned to detention center

Taipei district court judge Tsai Shou-hsun suspended a hearing to determine whether Chen should be released after having spent 161 days in detention at noon after the ex-president showed symptoms of a heart attack.

The hearing started at 10:00 a.m.

After the prosecutor in charge had demanded Chen's detention be extended by another two months, the former head of state stated he would be “scared to death” if he were to stay behind bars any longer.

His current detention is expected to come to an end on May 25, and Tsai has to decide whether Chen should stay at the Taipei detention center at Tucheng before that time.

The chances are that Chen may be detained for 60 days after May 25, after Special Counsel prosecutors indicted him for corruption and graft again on last Tuesday.

Attorneys for Chen requested Tsai release their client, who has been denied treatment for heart problems. Chen was then asked to make a statement.

He spoke for half an hour, complaining he had angina pectoris often at night and inability to move.

When he stopped complaining all of a sudden, Chen was asked to take a rest. But he refused, and bowed his head on his two hands on a desk before him in silence. Tsai ordered him to be taken to rest out of court.

When he returned after a half-hour rest, Chen had to be carried into the courtroom by two guards. He was seen trembling all over. Supporters at the courtroom cried for him, and Tsai had to rule that the former president be taken back to the detention house.

Tsai also ruled the suspended hearing would be resumed shortly with Chen in absentia.

On leaving the courtroom, Chen sobbed, saying he had spent more than half of his time after retirement in jail. His supporters outside the courthouse comforted him. Some of them went down on their knees, begging him to take good care of himself.

Chen had to be carried into the detention center by guards at Tucheng. There he handed his hand-written “last statement” to his attorney Cheng Wen-lung, who made it public.

In the statement, supposed to be his last, President

Chen announced the hunger strike would begin immediately in protest against the political persecution against him.

He said he tried to achieve independence for Taiwan as president of the people of Taiwan. “I would rather die than be a slave to the Chinese,” he said.

“I will never submit,” Chen declared, as he said he is being persecuted by President Ma Ying-jeou, his Kuomintang and his judiciary.

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