Wu Shu-jen likely to appear in court

First lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) will most likely appear in court today and be accompanied by her medical team, the Presidential Office said yesterday.

"It is a duty to appear in court and the first lady will in principle perform her duty, unless something extraordinary happens," Presidential Office Spokesman David Lee (李南陽) said.

Wu was indicted on corruption and forgery charges in connection with President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) alleged misuse of his "state affairs fund."

A member of Wu's medical team, Wong Chao-wen (翁昭旼), said yesterday Wu had been in good health recently and should be able to go to court today if nothing unexpected happened.

National Taiwan University Hospital will send a three to four-person medical team to provide any possible assistance, he said.

"She has been in good shape recently," Wong said. "There will be a medical team of at least three or four physicians to accompany her during the trial. There should not be any problem."

Wong said Wu was fine when she voted last Saturday and that he was confident Wu would be able to make it to the trial.

Judges yesterday said Wu did not file any request for legal absence from today's trial.

"As of now, she [Wu] is supposed to attend the trial on time as we have not received any application for legal absence from Friday's event," said Judge Liu Shou-sung (劉壽嵩), spokesman for the Taipei District Court.

Security inspections had already been completed, he added.

The National Security Bureau has also established a "1215 special task force" and assigned four security guards to accompany Wu to the court and stay inside the court room with the first lady throughout the trial.

Today's trial will be co-chaired by judges Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓), Hsu Chien-hui (徐千惠) and Wu Ding-ya (吳定亞) in Court Room No. 7.

Inside the court room, 50 seats will be reserved for the press while another 30 seats will be reserved for the public.

Another 450 seats will also be reserved for the public in the auditorium on the sixth floor of the judicial building.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) and Wang Shih-cheng (王世堅) yesterday suggested Wu would not appear in court today.

"A cold front is coming [today]. It would be better for the first lady to stay at home during cold weather as she has been in ill health recently," Wang said.

Wang said he and a group of people would keep an eye on the court today.

"If the pan-blues mobilize supporters to protest [against] the first lady, we will also take action," Wang said.

Cheng said that he could not see why the first lady should appear in court today "as the first day of a court session only has procedural meaning, for judges to identify defendants."

"Many defendants choose not to appear in court at the beginning of the trial," he added.

Cheng added that the court had made an unnecessary fuss over Wu's trial, arranging for it to be recorded and broadcast live in an auditorium.

Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling and Shih Hsiu-chuan