theSun | THURSDAY NOVEMBER 13 2008
news without borders
It’s a political witch-hunt,
cries detained Chen
TAIPEI: Taiwan’s former
president Chen Shui-
bian (pix), accused of
graft during his time
in office, was detained
yesterday after a court
approved a bid by
prosecutors to take
him into custody,
officials said.
Immediately after
the initial hearing, the
pro-independence Chen
reiterated in a statement read
out to reporters by his lawyer
that he was being persecuted by
the China-friendly Kuomintang
(KMT) government.
“The case is a political
persecution and a political witch-
hunt. Former president Chen
decides not to appeal the decision
(to detain him) in protest,” the
statement said.
Chen, implicated in several
scandals during his eight years in
power, was arrested on Tuesday,
accused of money laundering,
embezzling government
funds, taking bribes and
forging documents.
Chen, the first
former Taiwanese
president to be
taken into custody,
was transferred to
a detention centre
outside Taipei following
an overnight hearing, a
court official said.
The former leader, who
retired in May, is accused of
embezzling 14.8 million Taiwan
dollars (RM1.9 million) from
the government while he was
president.
Chen, his wife, son, daughter-
in-law, and brother-in-law have
all been named as defendants in a
separate money laundering case.
Police have tightened security
around the detention centre amid
threats from his supporters to
launch protests against what they
say is an “unfair” detention.
His hearing began late Tuesday
but was interrupted for several
hours after he demanded a
medical check-up, saying he was
attacked by police while he was
taken out of the prosecutor’s office
in handcuffs.
A defiant Chen put his
handcuffed hands in the air as
he stepped out of the office and
shouted “political persecution”
before getting into a waiting car.
His lawyer said he injured his
right elbow when a policeman
pushed his hands down.But
prosecutors rejected the claim.
Chen also blasted the
government for persecuting him
under pressure from Beijing.
Beijing has brushed aside
Chen’s claim. “This is nothing
but rumour-mongering by Chen
Shui-bian,” the spokeswoman
for China’s Taiwan Affairs, Fan
Liqing, said at a press briefing. “I
trust that everyone will see the
motives behind this clumsy trick,”
she said, when asked to respond
to Chen’s allegations. – AFP
007 is too violent
for ex-Bond Moore
NEW YORK: Movie audiences
nowadays expect scenes of graphic
violence in James Bond movies, unlike
when Roger Moore played the super
spy with a tongue-in-cheek humour,
the actor believes.
“I am happy to have done it, but
I’m sad that it has turned so violent,”
Overcrowded and unsafe
Aussie hospitals under fire
SYDNEY: Australia’s public hospitals
are unsafe, overcrowded and under-
funded, resulting in 1,500 unnecessary
deaths a year, a national doctors group
said yesterday in a report entitled
“Public Hospitals Flatlining”.
The Australian Medical Association
(AMA) report said not one public hospi-
tal was operating at a safe international
occupancy level and the hospital net-
work risked “systematic breakdown”.
The AMA called on the national
government to inject A$3 billion (RM6.8
billion) into public hospital funding,
warning that hospitals will not cope
with the nation’s ageing population.
Cuts in Australian health funding
have resulted in hospital bed capacity
slashed by 67% in the past 20 years and
there was now a national shortfall of
3,750 beds, said the report.
“Emergency departments are over
full. Corridors are lined with patients
13
Moore, 81, said before Quantum
of Solace, starring Daniel Craig as a
darker Agent 007, opens in North
America tomorrow.
The new Bond film opened in
London on Oct 31, breaking the
British weekend box-office record with
a gross of US$25 million (RM90 mil-
lion). It has taken in more than US$106
million (RM381.8 million) worldwide so
far. – Reuters
on trolleys,” said AMA president Dr
Rosanna Capolingua.
“One report showed three in four
patients in emergency departments
who needed to be admitted waited
more than eight hours. Of patients
needing urgent treatment one third
had to wait more than half an hour,”
said Capolingua.
“Enough is enough. What does it
take? Do we have to have more patients
die?,” she said.
More than half of Australia’s 20
million population relies on public
hospitals, which are jointly funded by
the national and state governments.
The AMA said many public hospitals
run at well over the safe occupancy
level of 85% and some exceed 95%.
“Doctors have left the public hospital
system because they feel compromised
in their ability to deliver best care to
patients,” the report said. – Reuters