Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
Hsieh made the remarks after the Special Investigation Section (SIS) under the Supreme Court Prosecutors' Office told reporters yesterday that he was a defendant in the Yu Huang Temple (
The Yu Huang Temple bribery allegations first came to light in 2002 when Hsieh was Kaohsiung mayor.
PHOTO: CNA
Hsieh was accused of accepting NT$2.8 million (US$84,848) from Hsu Wen-liang (
The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that the SIS had reopened the investigation and decided to list Hsieh as a defendant "because prosecutors had discovered a lot of new evidence, which may impact on Hsieh's presidential campaign."
Rebutting the report, SIS spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) told the press that "[Hsieh] has been a defendant in this case since the start, when the case was still in the hands of Kaohsiung prosecutors."
He added that "what you read in the newspapers may not necessarily be accurate."
Chen said that what prosecutors are working on had nothing to do with Hsieh's presidential campaign activities.
"We will do what we are supposed to do. Whether or not this will impact on his [Hsieh's] presidential campaign is not our concern," Chen said.
DPP Legislator Hsu Kuo-yung (
In his defense, Hsieh told the media yesterday that his support group had received the donation from the temple in Kaohsiung's Samin District, in 2003 but later returned the money to the temple because it feared the donation might be "controversial."
The temple later insisted on giving the money back to his support group, Hsieh said, so he decided to spend the money on buying two ambulances -- Yu Huang 1 and Yu Huang 2, which remain in use in Kaohsiung.
"It is my understanding that former Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] chairman Lien Chan (
He added that "unlike me, they did not attempt to return the money."
"This is an old case. If I were guilty, I would have been put away behind bars already," Hsieh said. "Trust me. I will be fine."
Additional reporting by Flora Wang
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