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Asian council calls
for medical parole for Chen
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) has called on President Ma
Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration to grant former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁)
medical parole, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
The DPP raised the issue of Chen’s case in the recently concluded CALD
Conference on Challenges to Fundamental Freedoms in Singapore and won support
from the council, the party said in a press release.
According to the council’s resolution, it expressed regret over Chen’s
imprisonment for more than four years under “substandard and inhumane”
conditions and recognized that Chen is in poor health.
It said it supported the conclusion made by Joseph Lin — who led the US medical
team that examined Chen in November — who said that the conditions under which
the former president was being held constituted a “gross miscarriage of justice
and human rights.”
The council “urges the government of President Ma Ying-jeou to go beyond
partisan interests and immediately grant former President Chen a medical parole”
and appeals that adequate and intensive medical care be given immediately to
Chen, it said.
Granting Chen medical parole would “pave the way for genuine political
reconciliation and maturation of Taiwanese democracy,” the council said.
Established in 1993 as a regional organization of liberal and democratic
political parties and politicians in Asia, the council now has 16 members.
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