TAIPEI: Taiwan’s ailing ex-president Chen Shui-bian was freed from prison on medical parole yesterday after serving six years of a 20-year sentence for graft, as political leaders called for reconciliation on the deeply divided island.
The 64-year-old, who led Taiwan from 2000 to 2008, waved to crowds of supporters as he left Taichung prison yesterday afternoon after being granted a month’s parole due to ill-health.
His freedom will be contingent on his medical condition, said deputy justice minister Chen Ming-tang, and he will be subject to monthly health check-ups.
The former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leader, who ended 50 years of Kuomintang party rule when he came to power, was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 for money-laundering and bribery during his term in office — reduced to 20 years after appeals.
Chen was transferred to a prison hospital in April last year after being diagnosed with severe depression, suspected Parkinson’s disease and other conditions.
He attempted suicide in June, trying to hang himself with a towel in a bathroom of the prison hospital.
AFP
