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Presidential Office opens Chen files

“They do not even qualify as secrets, let alone top secrets.”

— Wang Yu-chi, Presidential Office spokesman

The Presidential Office yesterday decided to declassify documents concerning former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) “state affairs fund,” saying they should not have been classified in the first place.

Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦), however, did not use the word “declassification,” and instead said the government was “revoking the earlier classification.”

Wang said the move was not a political gesture, nor was it politically motivated, adding that the disclosure would not harm national security or national interests.

He said the documents should not have been classified because they did not fit the description of national secrets.

“They do not even qualify as secrets, let alone top secrets,” he said. “Our decision today was based on hard evidence. I would like to challenge those who disagree to produce evidence to prove their claim.”

Wang made the remarks during a question-and-answer session at a press conference called by Presidential Office Secretary-General Chan Chun-po (詹春柏) yesterday afternoon.

Chan said five categories of documents listed as classified by Chen would be declassified. They included receipts and claim forms used by Chen for reimbursement, as well as budget books and prosecutors’ interview records.

The Presidential Office’s decision came after a second request by prosecutors and the courts to declassify the documents.

Court proceedings have been suspended since October after the Chen administration said that documents pertaining to six diplomatic missions were classified material under the protection of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) and that prosecutors and the court should not be allowed to see them. They then asked the Presidential Office to declassify the documents so that the trial could continue.

Instead of declassifying the documents, the Presidential Office in May gave the court access, but the Special Investigation Section of the Supreme Court Prosecutors’ Office claimed difficulty accessing them and made a second request in June.

Chen was declared a defendant in the case shortly after his term ended on May 20. Taipei prosecutors indicted his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), in November 2006 on corruption and forgery charges in connection with the mishandling of Chen’s “state affairs fund.” Chen could not be charged at the time because of presidential immunity.

Chan, authorized by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to form a task force to review the documents, said yesterday they had found that category one to category four documents did not contain any sensitive information concerning defense, foreign affairs and national security. Furthermore the revelation of such information would not cause any damage to national security or national interests, he said.

As category five did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Presidential Office, Chan said Chen had no right to declare the documents confidential.

Wang said the declassification of the documents should be treated separately from Chen’s case and the Presidential Office was in no position to comment on an on-going legal case.

Wang declined to speculate on Chen’s motive for classifying the documents, saying that it was up to the judiciary to decide whether he had broken the law by doing so.

Chen’s office yesterday issued a statement calling Ma’s decision “illegal” and “unconstitutional.”

The statement criticized the president for flouting the law and the Constitution.

Ma was making decisions based on political considerations, the statement said, adding that the move not only jeopardized national security and national interests but also left the former president with having to choose between keeping national secrets and defending himself.

The Supreme Prosecutors Office yesterday said it welcomed the Presidential Office’s decision to open the documents as it would be very helpful in their investigation into Chen’s involvement in the state affairs fund scandal.

At a separate setting yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅), who accused Chen and his wife of misusing the “state affairs fund” in 2006, lauded Ma’s decision to declassify the documents.

Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) told a separate press conference that Chen might file a lawsuit against Ma, arguing that his decision would constitute an offense against national security.

He said the Council of Grand Justices’ Ruling No. 627 issued in June last year recognized the president’s confidentiality privilege, and that given such a privilege, the president could determine whether a document should be kept confidential for national security or national interest concerns.

Since Chen approved the permanent classification of the documents relating to diplomatic secrets as confidential information, Ma would be violating the law and the Constitution by opening the documents, Gao said.

Additional reporting by Rich Chang and Flora Wang
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