Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Taiwan Tool Given Parole

Looks like he has a U.S. stamp, too:

"Imprisoned Taiwanese ex-president Chen given medical parole" Associated Press  January 06, 2015

TAIPEI — Former president Chen Shui-bian was granted a one-month medical parole Monday for treatment of neural degeneration, more than four years into his 20-year prison sentence for corruption.

Chen, 64, rolled down a car window and waved to about 200 supporters while a police escort took him out of the main gate at Taichung prison on Monday afternoon.

Chen, whose election in 2000 ended a 50-year monopoly on power by the island’s Nationalists and who moved to expand Taiwan’s de-facto independence from mainland China, went on trial shortly after the end of his 2000-2008 tenure. He was convicted in September 2009 of embezzlement and bribe-taking.

And now China and Taiwan are drawing ever closer.

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