Pro-Taiwan independence groups yesterday expressed their belief in former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) innocence after he was indicted on a charge of embezzling state funds, saying that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was behind the charge. The groups also said the indictment was politically motivated.
Justice has to be served in the indictment of Lee, scores of pro-Taiwan independence groups said at a joint press conference held in Taipei.
Lee was indicted on Thursday on charges of embezzling NT$7.8 million (US$271,000) in national security funds during his tenure in office from 1988 to 2000. The following day, Ma held an impromptu press conference denying accusations that the indictment of Lee was politically motivated.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Unconvinced, Taiwan Association of University Professors (TAUP) president Chang Yen-hsien (張炎憲) yesterday said it was hard to believe that Ma was not involved in the case.
Chang said that since Ma took office in 2008, opposition politicians, including former Chiayi County commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) and Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬), have been falsely prosecuted.
Lee’s support of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and his proposed campaign of “voting against Ma to protect Taiwan” were the reasons why Ma decided to go after the former president, Chang said.
Examining the development of the case chronologically, “you will realize that this is a calculated maneuver,” he said.
“Lee was indicted by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Panel on June 30. Ma held a press conference the next day and said the case was by no means an act of political oppression. On July 2, Ma announced at the party congress of his Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] that the main theme of his re-election campaign will be ‘fighting corruption,’” Chang said.
Lo Fu-chen (羅福全), Taiwan’s former representative to Japan, said Ma’s recent comments on the case suggested that Taiwan’s judicial system did not function independently.
“As the president, the top official of the administrative branch, Ma should not ‘instruct’ what should be done on any judicial case. If he does so, it’s an infringement of the judicial system,” Lo said.
Central Taiwan Society (台灣中社) secretary-general Lee Chuan-hsin (李川信) said the indictment did not make sense because “it was not necessary for Lee to steal money from the state fund for his own business because he doubled as KMT chairman at the time, and the KMT is one of the richest -parties in the world.”
“Lee could have gotten the money from his own party [if he wanted to steal money], which would have been easier,” Lee Chuan-hsin said.
Tsai on Friday called the timing of the former president’s indictment “suspicious,” adding that judicial cases “should not be used as tools to serve political interests or for election purposes.”
Coming to Ma’s defense, Lee Chia-fei (李佳霏), a spokeswoman for the president’s campaign office, yesterday accused Tsai of -criticizing the judiciary through a political lens.
Lee Chia-fei said that when KMT members were indicted, the DPP did not accuse the courts of being selective in their rulings, and accuse Tsai of favoring a partisan judiciary in which “people from the pan-blue camp can be indicted and people from the pan-green camp cannot.”
Additional reporting by Staff Writer
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
WAR’S END ANNIVERSARY: ‘Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,’ the president said on social media after attending a morning ceremony Countries should uphold peace, and promote freedom and democracy, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday as Taiwan marked 80 years since the end of World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lai, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and other top officials in the morning attended a ceremony at the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) to honor those who sacrificed their lives in major battles. “Taiwanese are peace-loving. Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,” Lai wrote on Facebook afterward, apparently to highlight the contrast with the military parade in Beijing marking the same anniversary. “We
RSS