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Chen Shui-bian to stay free without bail

Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his defense counsels yesterday prevailed over the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office Special Investigation Panel (SIP) in a five-hour court hearing, as the Taipei District Court deliberated on whether Chen should be returned to detention pending trial on corruption charges. Chen remains free and no bail was imposed.

The hearing was held yesterday following the Taiwan High Court’s order on Wednesday that the Taipei District Court reconsider its decision last Friday to release Chen without bail pending his trial on corruption and money laundering charges.

The high court gave the order after SIP filed an appeal on Tuesday, saying that if Chen was allowed to remain free, several witnesses, including three of his former close aides, might refuse to cooperate with prosecutors investigating several other corruption cases allegedly involving Chen and his wife.

Yesterday’s hearing began at 2:30pm.

Arguing that Chen needed to be detained, SIP Prosecutor Lin Cher-hui said: “The former first family still possess a great amount of cash, approximately NT$570 million [US$18 million] in foreign bank accounts that has yet to be retrieved. We have good reason to believe that the defendant and his family members will flee to a foreign country and live off the money.”

The prosecutors also argued that although Chen is protected by National Security Bureau special agents as a former president, “these agents are there to protect him, not to monitor him.”

Lin said that prosecutors had spoken to Chen on July 24 in the absence of the agents and said that Chen had also visited a fortune teller unaccompanied in September.

Alleging that Chen had transferred US$1.91 million to former presidential adviser Wu Li-pei’s (吳澧培) foreign accounts, prosecutors argued that they regarded such a move as an “attempt to destroy evidence.”

In response, Chen’s defense counsels Cheng Sheng-chu (鄭勝助) and Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍) lodged a protest against the prosecutors’ appeal.

“[Upon learning Chen was released without bail on Saturday] the SIP spokesman said that prosecutors would not appeal. Within 24 hours, prosecutors changed their minds. It is difficult to convince me that no political pressure was involved,” Cheng Sheng-chu said.

Citing Chinatrust Financial Holding Co’s (中信金控) former vice chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr (辜仲諒) — whom prosecutors released on NT$100 million (US$3 million) bail following his return to Taiwan last month after two years on the run — as an example, Cheng Wen-lung said: “Koo was a fugitive, but the SIP decided to let him go. My client has never fled, but the SIP wants to detain him. Why is it necessary to treat a former president this way?”

Chen and 13 other people were indicted on Dec. 12 on charges of embezzlement, bribe taking and money laundering.
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