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Hearing attracts crowds of Chen supporters

Huang Yung-tien, left, a supporter of former president Chen Shui-bian, raises his cuffed hands during a protest outside a Taipei court yesterday where Chen was appealing his continued detention on corruption charges. About 300 people took part in the protest. Huang was recently sentenced to five months in jail for tearing off Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi’s toupee last year. PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES

Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) detention hearing yesterday attracted big crowds inside and outside the courtroom, including former Judicial Yuan vice president Cheng Chung-mo (城仲模), several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators and hundreds of the former president’s supporters.

Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) scheduled yesterday’s detention hearing so prosecutors and the defense could argue whether it is necessary to keep Chen detained at the Taipei Detention Center, where he has been held since Dec. 30 on corruption charges.

The judges will make a decision on Monday. Prosecutors argued that Chen should remain in detention, citing fears that he may flee the country or collude with witnesses.

Chen’s court-appointed lawyers yesterday said that it was unnecessary to keep Chen behind bars because the reason to extend detention no longer existed.

One of the court-appointed lawyers, Tseng Te-rong (曾德榮), argued that the investigation had concluded, and so there was no need for Chen to destroy evidence or collude with witnesses.

The prosecutors’ insistence on keeping Chen behind bars with no reason may be interpreted as a way of “detaining in order to force a confession,” he said.

“The defendant’s [Chen] choice to remain silent is his judicial right. This does not hinder the litigation from continuing,” Tseng said, adding that Chen had no motive to flee the country because his family had all been barred from leaving.

In response, the prosecution argued that Chen may jump bail even if the court set the bail at a large amount, using former Far Eastern Air Transport chairman Stephen Tsui (崔湧), who jumped bail last month, as an example to state their point.

“Even though Tsui’s bail was set at NT$90 million (US$3 million), this did not stop him from fleeing the country,” prosecutor Lin Yi-chun (林怡君) said.

Prosecutors also cited witness statements that said the former president had applied for a passport, as well as expressing plans to stay overseas long-term.

After hearing this, the former president broke his silence to argue in his own defense, criticizing prosecutors for misinterpreting witness statements.

“I didn’t tell [former presidential adviser Wu Li-pei (吳澧培)] that I planned to stay overseas long-term, only that I hoped to improve Taiwan’s foreign relations after I left office,” he said.

Chen said he applied for a passport because he did not need to use a passport in the eight years that he was president, so he had to renew his expired passport after he left office.

The incident was reported by the media and publicized, and he had no intention to keep it a secret, he said.

Throughout the hearing, the former president told Tsai to “listen to his conscience.”

Since his last detention hearing on May 7, Chen has declined to speak in his defense or answer questions in protest of what he calls an unfair judicial system.

Meanwhile, several DPP legislators showed their support for the former president at the hearing. However, minor arguments broke out between bailiffs and legislators, who were angry to discover that the number of seats open to the public was limited.

“Chen’s detention has seriously harmed his judicial rights,” DPP Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said outside the courtroom.

He said prosecutors’ use of Tsui as an example to prove their point was “ridiculous to an extreme.”

The former Judicial Yuan vice president also condemned prosecutors for using Tsui as an example, saying that the method was very “unrefined.”

Cheng said none of the reasons for detention applied to Chen’s case, so “why keep [Chen] detained?”

He also expressed disappointment that judicial reform had not come very far.

Separately, outside the courtroom, hundreds of the former president’s supporters protested what they called an “illegal detention.”

Former DPP legislator Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳), one of the protest leaders, told the protesters that if the court did not decide to release Chen on Monday, they should rush in and “make the court shut down operations.”

The protesters gathered in front of the Ministry of Justice, carrying signs and yelling phrases such as, “Tsai Shou-hsun, go to hell” and “Justice not served.”

Joining the throng of Chen supporters nationwide who accused the justice system of failing to be impartial, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told a press conference yesterday that the court had no legal grounds to detain Chen further, and that he must be released immediately out of human rights considerations.

“The entire process has already spurred the public to speculate on the fairness of the system,” Tsai Ing-wen told the news conference, which was held at the same time as Chen’s hearing.

“If the court denies the defendant’s right to defend himself by keeping him locked up long term through the use of ridiculous and far-fetched reasons, it would be hard for the public to believe this was not a political maneuver or political persecution,” she said.

She said that at this point in the trial, the legal conditions for further detention, such as the possibility that Chen may flee the country, tamper with evidence or collude with witnesses, had all “ceased to exist.”

Tsai Ing-wen has not always been a conspicuous advocate for Chen’s release since his incarceration. Her silence had sparked indignation among many Chen supporters.

Late last month, she broke her silence and signed a petition along with a number of prominent legal academics calling for Chen’s immediate release. The DPP was not voicing its support for Chen’s claims of innocence, but was standing up for the right of all defendants and to highlight problems with Taiwan’s judicial system, she said.

The court rejected Chen’s last appeal because he published books, gave an interview to a foreign wire service without permission and applied to resume his DPP membership during his time in the detention center — all reasons that do not justify a prolonged detention, she said yesterday.

Pro-Chen supporters in various parts of the country also expressed their hope that Chen would be freed by launching a yellow ribbon campaign.

In Pingtung, more than 60 people, including lawmakers and city councilmen, gathered at the 228 Memorial Park to pray for Chen’s freedom. The crowd tied yellow ribbons on the trees in the park and said Chen’s plight was a sign of the eroding human rights in Taiwan.

Another group of 30-plus supporters held up white banners and tried to barge into the Taichung District Court to voice their support for Chen. The crowd dispersed peacefully about one hour later after the police barred them from entering the building.

The pro-independence Taiwan Nation Alliance is slated to hold a massive yellow ribbon rally tomorrow in 17 cities nationwide to stump for Chen’s innocence. Tsai told the press that she was not aware of the event but that “there are many other ways to support Chen” and the party would carefully weigh its options.

Also See: Detention system must be overhauled: panel
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