A prison hospital decided Friday that Wu Shu-chen, wife of former Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian, was physically unfit to serve her jail term of 17 and a half years for corruption.

A spokesman for Pei Teh Hospital, affiliated to Taichung Prison, said a medical team examined Wu, 57, who is paralyzed and wheelchair-bound, shortly after she arrived and declined to admit her.

Reporters followed Wu as she was taken from Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office, in southern Taiwan, to the prison hospital.

Both Wu and Chen were sentenced to a jail terms of 17 and a half years last year for embezzlement, taking bribes and money laundering during Chen's tenure as Taiwan leader from 2000 to 2008. Wu was also fined 154 million New Taiwan dollars (5 million U.S. dollars).

Chen started his sentence at a prison in Taoyuan County on Dec. 2. It is the first time that a former leader of Taiwan has been jailed.