The trial of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) on charges of embezzling state funds is scheduled to begin on Oct. 21, the Taipei District Court announced yesterday.
Judge Hu Tsung-kan (胡宗淦) will preside over the case, the district court said.
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division (SID) announced that Yang Jung-tsung (楊榮宗) and Cheng Shen-yuan (鄭深元) are set to be the prosecutors.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
As the indictments pertain to national security matters, the hearing is to be held behind closed doors, the court said, adding that security measures were already in place for Lee’s hearing.
The SID accuses Lee and Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), an aide, of illegally siphoning US$7.8 million from secret diplomatic funds used by the National Security Bureau and laundering the money during his terms in office from 1988 to 2000.
The SID said Lee used those funds to set up the Taiwan Research Institute, which later made him honorary chairman.
The think tank used some of the funds — allegedly laundered by Ruentex Group (潤泰集團) — to purchase luxury offices in downtown Taipei for Lee and Liu, which were also built by the conglomerate, prosecutors said.
They also allege that Liu pocketed US$440,000.
If convicted, the 88-year-old former president could face at least 10 years in prison.
Lee has denied any involvement in corruption.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS