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Prosecutors talk with Wu Shu-jen again

Members of the Supreme Prosecutor Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP) yesterday visited former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) at her home to question her for a second time about the money laundering allegations involving former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

The prosecutors’ vehicles arrived at the former president’s residence at 2:40pm and the prosecutors stayed for approximately two hours. They confirmed later that they had talked to Wu, but they would not say if they had searched the home again. Chen was not at home at the time.

“You misunderstand. We simply had a chat with the former first lady,” prosecutor Chu Chao-liang (朱朝亮) said.

Chu also confirmed that prosecutors had issued a second summons asking the former first family’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and his wife Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) to come in for questioning.

This is the second summons prosecutors have issued, but the first listing the couple as defendants in the investigation. The couple will be put on the wanted list if they fail to show up after a third summons is issued.

“The former first lady is not in good health. As a result, we will return for more chats or formal questioning when necessary. She does not have to report to us at the prosecutors’ office,” Chu said.

At a Rotary of Taipei Northgate luncheon yesterday, the former president said his son would return to Taiwan to face investigators, a Rotary member present at the luncheon said, but did not give an exact date. The former president did not make any remarks in response to reporters’ inquiries.

“He told us that the school had accepted his son’s application and gave him a student ID. But the Taiwanese media keeps harassing them [Chen Chih-chung and Huang Jui-ching] ... He also said that [his son] will come back,” said Hsieh Tien-fu (謝天福), a Rotary member.

Chen Chih-chung, who was supposed to attend a three-day compulsory orientation session at the University of Virginia School of Law, failed to show up and therefore forfeited his place in the program, school authorities told reporters camped outside the school on Monday. His current whereabouts are a mystery.

Hsieh said Chen Shui-bian addressed the luncheon for about 10 minutes and told them that all of the money wired overseas had been handled by his wife.

He also said he had donated more than NT$300 million (US$9 million) to the Democratic Progressive Party and its candidates over the years to support it during elections, Hsieh said.

Meanwhile, Chief Prosecutor Kuo Yung-fa (郭永發) of the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office led a team of assistant prosecutors in a search of former Bureau of Investigation director-general Yeh Sheng-mao’s (葉盛茂) Muzha residence on Thursday night.

The search lasted for approximately two hours and took place while Yeh was out.

Yeh said that he was not expecting prosecutors to search his residence.

“It was a coincidence that I was not home when they arrived. They took away some of my personal belongings. That’s pretty much it,” Yeh said in a telephone conversation.

The belongings Yeh referred to were later confirmed to be several of his diaries and notebooks.

Prosecutors said that they intend to summon Yeh again in the near future to help clarify any potential questions they have about the diaries and notebooks.

Yeh said last weekend that he had failed to share information about money laundering suspicions involving the former first family with prosecutors before his retirement.

Prosecutors are still trying to retrieve the evidence reportedly ignored by Yeh.



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