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Judge orders `fund' files opened by Tuesday

The Taipei District Court decided yesterday to speed up the "state affairs fund" case by announcing that documents concerning diplomatic projects will be opened by Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the judge, Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓), yesterday fined Presidential Secretary-General Mark Chen (陳唐山) and four other officials from the Presidential Office NT$30,000 (US$914) each for not attending yesterday's hearing as witnesses.

"The five officials had no proper reason to be absent from the hearing. The court will fine them again if they are summoned but refuse to appear in court in the future," Tsai added.

Mark Chen, Government Ethics Department Director-General Hsieh Chien-tsai (謝建財), Presidential Office Second Bureau Director Yu Hsin-ming (余新明) and two other subordinate officials in charge of diplomatic projects were the five officials who received fines.

Mark Chen had said that matters concerning secret diplomacy should be the President's privilege, and that he and other officials from the Presidential Office have no right to explain the matters in court.

Three sets of documents were sealed by Prosecutor Eric Chen (陳瑞仁) after he completed his investigation to prevent the release of secret diplomatic information.

The court had been attempting to clarify whether the projects had been approved and later placed under the protection of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法).

The Presidential Office has refused to produce certain requested documents on the six diplomatic projects relating to the "state affairs fund" case after the court twice sent letters asking for the documents to be handed over.

The Presidential Office replied that turning over the documents was a matter for the president himself to decide.

"The court has decided that the documents are not under the protection of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act and has decided to open the documents to attorneys and prosecutors in the case on Jan. 23 if President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) does not offer an explanation as to the status of the documents by Jan. 22," Tsai said at the end of the hearing yesterday.

Tsai said the court would immediately send a letter to the president to request an explanation of the secret diplomatic projects.

First lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) and three former Presidential Office aides -- deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成), secretariat director Lin Te-hsun (林德訓) and treasurer Chen Cheng-hui (陳鎮慧) -- were indicted on charges of corruption for allegedly embezzling NT$14.8 million (US$449,600) from the fund.

Wu was absent from yesterday's hearing. She has missed four days of the hearing since falling ill during the court's first session on Dec. 15.

The Presidential Office issued a press statement late on Thursday saying that the five officials had a legitimate reason to be absent from court because questions the judges intended to ask infringed upon the president's "state secrets privilege" and could harm the national interest.

Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said last night that the Presidential Office would appeal against the five officials' fines.

Cho said that the Presidential Office would file the appeal within five days after the court notice is delivered.

Additional reporting by Jimmy Chuang and CNA

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