Chiu also said that Hung had once alleged that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had asked former Examination Yuan president Hsu Shui-teh (?w) to give her NT$300 million in October 1993 to talk her out of running for Changhua County commissioner.
Judicial Yuan Deputy Secretary-General Shen Shou-jing (沈守敬) said the yuan would launch an investigation into the matter.
At the same setting, Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) told the committee that the ministry would amend the Detention Act (羈押法) after the Council of Grand Justices ruled on Dec. 26 that it was unconstitutional to deny a detainee the right to file a court complaint alleging maltreatment by the detention center.
The grand justices said that Article 6 of the Detention Act and Article 14 of the Act’s regulations for implementation should be amended within two years.
Wang said legal revisions to the Detention Act were necessary because the legislation was outdated. The Detention Act was enacted in 1946 and implemented in 1947.
Committee members across party lines expressed support for the amendments.
Meanwhile, Chen has urged the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to unite, saying in a letter that the party’s opponent was not President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) but Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
DPP Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) told reporters after visiting Chen at the Taipei Detention Center that Chen was planning to write 50 letters, including to Hu and Ma, and would compile them into a book.
Ker said Chen had written eight so far, and that in one of the them, he urged the DPP to unite and emphasized that the party’s antagonist was Hu, not Ma.
Chen is suspected of money laundering, accepting bribes, forgery and embezzling NT$15 million (US$450,000) during his presidency.
He has accused the KMT administration of “political persecution” and of waging a “political vendetta” against him to curry favor with China.
His wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), has been charged and is being tried.
Ker said yesterday that Chen planned to pay his respects to Liu Po-yen (劉柏煙) after he gets out.
Liu, an 80-year-old retired teacher and former long-time KMT member, set himself on fire on Nov. 11 to protest actions by the KMT administration, including the government’s handling of anti-China protesters when Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) visited Taipei.
Ker visited the former president with Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), and daughter-in-law, Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚), both of whom have been indicted for corruption and money laundering in connection with the case.
The couple filed a document to prosecutors last month saying they would like to clear up any misunderstanding about the source of the NT$570 million (US$17 million) in the pair’s overseas bank accounts and help prosecutors have the money transferred to Taiwan.
Wu’s lawyer, Lee Sheng-hsiung (李勝雄), also visited the detention center yesterday and asked Chen Chih-chung to take two books to the former president.
Lee said Wu wanted to visit her husband, but could not because of her poor health.
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