The Taipei District Court yesterday set Sept. 11 as the date it will announce its verdict in the corruption cases against former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
The former president has maintained that the money he sent overseas was from leftover campaign funds that he dedicated to classified foreign relations building, while denying that the money was earned through illegal dealings.
The court will hear the closing defense from former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) and the former president on Monday and Tuesday respectively.
Chen was indicted on Dec. 13 last year on charges of embezzling government funds, money laundering and forgery, along with 13 co-defendants, including his wife. He is incarcerated at the Taipei Detention Center.
Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) also set Aug. 4 as the date on which the court will hear arguments on whether the couple’s son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚), and others would be allowed to enter plea bargaining.
The younger Chen and his wife had promised to wire the family’s overseas funds of about NT$1.2 billion (US$36 million) from Swiss accounts and paper companies back to Taiwan as part of the conditions to enter plea bargaining.
However, none of the money has been remitted because Swiss authorities froze the funds based on the two country’s judicial mutual assistance agreement. Taiwanese prosecutors are in the process of requesting that the money be unfrozen and wired back.
Meanwhile, Tsai yesterday heard closing arguments from former Hsinchu Science Park chief James Lee (李界木), who is also a co-defendant in Chen Shui-bian’s trial. Lee, along with Chen Shui-bian, is charged with taking kickbacks from a government land deal in Longtan (龍潭), Taoyuan County.
Lee yesterday admitted to taking NT$30 million (US$1 million) in bribes and pleaded to the court for a light sentence. When Lee testified as a witness in Chen Shui-bian’s trials, his testimony contradicted what he told Special Investigation Panel prosecutors.
Prosecutors argued that Lee’s contradictory remarks showed he had been trying to cover up for the former president and Wu, and advised against a lighter sentence.
Prosecutors allege that in a meeting at the Presidential Office between the former president, Lee and other government officials, Chen Shui-bian proposed that the administration first rent the plot of land, then buy it and eventually include it as part of a science park.
Prosecutors allege that the plan was for the former first lady to collect NT$400 million (US$12 million) in bribes as part of a deal between the government-run Hsinchu Science Park and Dayu Development Corp.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique