Taipei prosecutors said yesterday that they had not decided whether Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was guilty of any wrongdoing after questioning him for four hours over alleged misuse of his special expense fund.
"Ma was questioned [yesterday] as a concerned party, and his status remains that of a concerned party following the interview," Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office spokesman Chang Wen-cheng (張文政) told a press conference.
Chang said Ma, interviewed from 8:50am to 12:50pm, detailed his handling of his special allowance fund during his time in office.
Ma cooperated fully with the investigation, Chang added.
Chang said it was too early to say whether Ma was guilty of anything and whether he would be charged.
"Prosecutors need time to look at Ma's statement and compare it with the evidence gathered," Chang said, adding that Ma offered prosecutors a number of documents related to his usage of the special allowance.
Chang said Prosecutor Hou Kuan-jen (
Other Black Gold Investigation Center prosecutors, including Prosecutor Eric Chen (陳瑞仁), who indicted first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) on corruption and forgery charges in connection with the handling of the "state affairs fund," joined the Ma investigation to avoid controversy different investigation standards from those used during the first family's investigation, Chang added.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsieh Hsin-ni (謝欣霓) and several of her colleagues filed a lawsuit with the Black Gold Investigation Center on Aug. 4 accusing Ma of using his special allowance fund to pay for a physical exam and fees to adopt a dog known as Ma Hsiao-jeou (馬小九).
DPP lawmakers accused Ma of spending NT$79,700 (US$2,430) from the special allowance on his dog. They also accused him of embezzling half of his special monthly mayoral allowance, or NT$170,000, alleging that he deposits the funds into his personal account every month.
Ma has admitted using money from the fund to adopt his dog but said that the bill came to only NT$9,900 and that he had repaid that amount.
After being questioned, Ma said he had always run his administration according to the law, but declined to reveal the content of the questioning.
"I have adhered to the law and separated my public and private interests," Ma said.
While declining to comment on his conversation with the prosecutors, Ma insisted he had explained the matter in detail, and believed that the prosecutors would make their judgment in accordance with the law.
In response to questions from reporters about including money left in the fund in his declaration of property, Ma said he did so according to the Act on Property Declarations by Public Servants (
Ma said that he spent half of the monthly NT$340,000 fund, which requires receipts, on gifts for weddings, funerals and rewards for his employees.
The other half of the fund, which did not require receipts, went into his personal account.
He dismissed speculation that there was any discrepancy between the total of his receipts and the actual expenditure.
"I have a lot of confidence in the prosecutors," he added.
Ma was scheduled to meet the prosecutors at 9:30am, but the meeting was moved forward by 30 minutes and the location was changed.
Taipei City Government officials yesterday acknowledged that the prosecutors changed the time and location after learning that the media had acquired the information, but they denied leaking the news.
also see story:
Substitute receipts discovered in mayoral account
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS