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US senator asks AIT
director to visit former president
By William Lowther / Staff reporter in WASHINGTON
A US senator has asked Christopher Marut, director of the American Institute in
Taiwan (AIT), to visit former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in jail or
hospital.
Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, said in a letter sent this week to Marut that
Chen is suffering from severe depression and is undergoing psychiatric treatment
at Taipei Veterans General Hospital.
It is an obvious attempt by Brown to draw more attention to Chen’s case and
increase the pressure on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to grant medical parole
for Chen, who is serving a 17-and-a-half-year sentence for corruption.
“Reduced to a shadow of his former fiery self, Chen stutters and slurs his
speech, and cannot walk far without tripping over,” The Economist magazine
reported earlier this month.
“The prison’s harsh standard of treatment, which falls well below international
norms, is contributing to serious illness,” the magazine said.
Chen’s continued incarceration, The Economist said, was not only undermining
Ma’s “now dangerously low popularity,” but also faith in Taiwan’s system of
justice.
“As advocates for human rights, freedom, democracy and the rule of law around
the world, it is critical that we continue to support Taiwan,” Brown wrote to
Marut.
Brown urged Marut to read a recent independent medical report that details
Chen’s failing health and concludes that “in any democracy” this would be
sufficient cause for immediate medical parole on humanitarian grounds.
“I ask that you review the report and visit the former president at the
appropriate time,” the letter said.
“Senator Brown is a friend of president Chen, whom he has met on multiple
occasions in Taiwan over the past decade,” Formosa Association of Public Affairs
president Mark Kao (高龍榮) said. “It is touching to see a US senator ... reach out
across the globe to a friend in need.”
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