The Taiwan High Court yesterday found Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) not guilty of corruption. Ma had been indicted on Feb. 13 on charges of embezzling NT$11 million (US$338,000) from his special mayoral allowance during his eight years as Taipei mayor.
The High Court Prosecutor's Office said yesterday it was considering an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Taipei District Court had cleared Ma in August, but prosecutors had appealed.
Prosecutors argue that Ma diverted half of his monthly special allowance -- NT$170,000 -- to personal bank accounts between December 1998 and July last year.
In this way, they said, Ma had accumulated NT$11,176,227 in accounts held in his name and that of his wife.
"The court ruled that the half of government officials' monthly special allowance not requiring accounting oversight can be cashed out or wired into personal accounts, and that accounting officials have no right to ask how this money is spent," Taiwan High Court spokesman Wen Yao-yuan (溫耀源) told a press conference yesterday.
Wen said the court upheld the view that government officials have, since 1973, not been required to account for half of their special allowance.
The court ruled that Ma had not overspent any of his allowance and that his use of the allowance had been legitimate, Wen said.
Since Ma made charity donations of more than NT$51 million during his time as mayor, an amount exceeding the special allowance he had received, the court found that he had not embezzled public funds, the spokesman said.
During the trial Ma admitted that he had taken half of his monthly special allowance for personal use, but said he believed that government officials' special allowances should be treated as a subsidy, not as public funds.
Presiding judge Liu Ching-hsing (
"The court rejects the prosecutors' appeal and upholds the Taipei District Court's ruling that Ma Ying-jeou is not guilty," Liu said, drawing cheers from a crowd of Ma supporters waiting outside the courtroom.
Ma's former secretary Yu Wen (
Yu may appeal to the Supreme Court, Wen said.
Ma said in response to the ruling that it would only lead to a more challenging path to the presidency, as he was sure that the ruling party would try to suppress him by using more drastic measures.
Accompanied by five lawyers, Ma accused prosecutors of distorting the testimony of witnesses and applying different standards to similar cases.
He said the judicial system had failed to fulfill its duty, as it had failed to unify prosecutors' opinions on special fund cases.
"I felt calm the moment I heard the verdict. This is just another beginning. A more challenging road lies ahead, and there's no time to relax," Ma said yesterday at his campaign headquarters in Taipei.
"As a Hakka idiom says, `even high mountains can't cover the sun.' The truth will eventually be revealed. A total of six judges have proved my innocence, which just goes to show the prosecutors' case and appeal were both inappropriate and unreasonable," Ma said.
As supporters cheered "Go, go, Ma Ying-jeou" and waved the national flag outside his campaign headquarters, Ma said the six months he spent fighting for his innocence had made him realize that other people could suffer the same "insults and injustice," which was why he vowed to establish an impartial and equitable judicial environment if elected.
RSS