Taiwan ex-leader to attend funeral in handcuffs

Taiwan’s jailed ex-leader Chen Shui-bian will be allowed to attend his mother-in-law’s funeral next week, but will be handcuffed or chained and barred from speaking to the media, officials said yesterday.
The funeral is scheduled for January 10, a sensitive time just four days ahead of presidential elections, triggering speculation that his appearance could move votes, according to local media.
“If an inmate applies for permission to attend a close relative’s funeral, permission is granted for humanitarian reasons,” said Su Kun-ming, a spokesman for Taipei Prison, where Chen is serving a term of 17 years and six months.
“However, the prisoner must be escorted by prison wardens and be handcuffed or chained. Also, he is not allowed to talk to reporters.”
Chen, who was president from 2000 to 2008, has already decided to ask to attend the funeral of his 85-year-old mother-in-law Wu Wang-hsia, who died Saturday, Chen’s son Chen Chih-chung told reporters earlier yesterday.
The funeral will take place in the southern city of Tainan, a stronghold of the anti-China opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which Chen once led.
The Apple Daily and other local media speculated yesterday that Chen, who still commands some support among DPP members in the south of the island, could sway some voters simply by emerging in public.
DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen is challenging the incumbent Ma Ying-jeou in the January 14 vote, aiming to become Taiwan’s first female president.
Chen Chih-chung, Chen’s 32-year-old son, is also campaigning in legislative elections taking place on the same day, claiming that he has his father’s full support to run for the national level post.
Chen Shui-bian is serving the jail term in a high-profile case that saw his wife Wu Shu-chen get the same sentence. She is not in jail due to frail health.
He and family members have been accused in a complex network of cases that say they sent political donations and secret diplomatic funds abroad, laundered millions of US dollars and took kickbacks on government contracts.
He and his supporters say the cases are politically motivated and part of a vendetta waged against him as retaliation for his eight years in power, when he was seeking to push Taiwan towards a more formal independence from China.