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Fascist Ghosts Must be Dancing in Glee

I have only just seen the official news report that former President Chen Shui-bian and his wife have been sentenced to life in prison for corruption during his eight years in office. Life imprisonment? For theft? And it wasn't even the kind of Bernie Madoff or Enron corruption that emptied the bank accounts of innocent people and left them bereft of financial security in their retirement years.

A lifetime in prison?

And this while the torturers and murderers who shot the victims of fascist Nationalist execution squads, who dragged people from their homes in the dead of night, remain unpunished to live out the remainder of their lives in comfort and the security of knowing that the machine will protect them? And this while those who supported the murder machines under the two Chiang regimes--the Squirrel and his archenemy the Incompetent--remain respected and free? Not a single person was sentenced to prison for their role in the executions and tortures of the White Terror years, even though many of them surely still live. Thousands dead, and not a single executioner or torturer is in jail.

Sure, the Incompetent "apologized" for "mistakes" made by his predecessors, including his former boss Chiang the Younger. There were plenty of families torn apart by the gunshot under the Younger's reign of terror. It wasn't his Mini Mao father who had all the pleasure of spilling the blood of innocent Taiwanese who wanted nothing more than democratic elections, a free press, and the right to speak their minds without fear of a bullet in the back of the head.

A lifetime in prison? The ghost is the machine.

From the Seattle Times
(partial and edited story below)
Friday, September 11, 2009:
Taiwan court convicts Chen, imposes life sentence

By PETER ENAV, Associated Press Writer

A three-judge Taiwan court imposed a life sentence on former President Chen Shui-bian after convicting him of corruption Friday, marking a watershed in the island's turbulent political history.

Chen's wife Wu Shu-chen was also convicted of corruption and received the same life sentence, said court spokesman Huang Chun-ming.

"Chen Shui-bian and Wu Shu-chen were sentenced to life in prison because Chen has done grave damage to the country, and Wu, because she was involved in corruption deals as the first lady," Huang said. The two had also been fined a total of NT$500 million ($US 15.2 million).

The 58-year-old Chen was charged with embezzling $3.15 million during his 2000-2008 presidency from a special presidential fund, receiving bribes worth at least $9 million in connection with a government land deal, laundering some of the money through Swiss bank accounts, and forging documents.

The verdicts came as hundreds Chen supporters demonstrated outside a downtown Taipei court, holding flags and banners saying "free him" and "Chen's innocent."

Indeed, most Taiwanese were convinced that Chen was guilty of at least some of the charges against him, though some of his supporters believed his anti-China views played a role in his prosecution, and that he was unfairly confined to jail during his trial. Chen had been confined to a suburban Taipei jail since late December, after prosecutors convinced judges not to free him following his indictment. One judge who ruled to release Chen during his trial was suddenly replaced and his verdict overturned, with the former president being once again marshaled into jail.



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