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Outrage as Taiwan ex-leader barred from funeral

03 January 2012 23:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Taiwan prison authorities said Tuesday jailed ex-leader Chen Shui-bian would not be permitted to attend his mother-in-law’s funeral next week, sparking angry protests from his office and the opposition, APA reports quoting AFP.

The funeral of 85-year-old Wu Wang-hsia is scheduled for January 10, just four days before a presidential poll that could see the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), once chaired by Chen, regain power.

"Many people are expected at the funeral, and for security reasons Chen won’t be allowed to go that day," said Su Kun-ming, the spokesman for Taipei Prison, where Chen is serving a term of 17 years and six months.

Chen, who was president from 2000 to 2008, will be allowed to pay his final respects to his mother-in-law on an undisclosed day, according to prison authorities.

The decision immediately touched off a furious protest from Chen’s office, which dismissed the reference to security concerns as an excuse to prevent the former leader from appearing in public.

"The decision is obviously due to political considerations," it said in a statement.

The former leader’s son Chen Chih-chung, who is running for a legislative seat on January 14, urged prison authorities to change their minds so that Chen "can bid the last farewell to my grandmother at the funeral".

Su reiterated the terms under which Chen will be allowed the trip to the southern Tainan city, saying he would have to be either handcuffed or chained, and should refrain from any contact with the media.

"Asking a retired president to be handcuffed is a deliberate humiliation," DPP legislator Huang Wei-cher said.

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 says 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.

Taiwan and China have been governed separately since the end of a civil war in 1949, but Beijing still claims sovereignty over the island and has vowed to get it back by force if necessary.