Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was cleared of embezzlement charges yesterday, as the Taiwan High Court upheld a not-guilty verdict handed down by a lower court.
The Taiwan High Court said it found no evidence that Lee embezzled US$7.79 million in state funds used to conduct foreign affairs.
The Taipei District Court acquitted Lee of the charges in November last year, but the Special Investigation Division (SID) of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office appealed the ruling to the High Court.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Lee issued a statement via his office yesterday after the verdict was announced saying he felt no particular joy over the ruling, because the SID was pursuing an old case by laying charges against him without any evidence.
“Now I hope the dust has settled and the case can be closed. The judiciary has to become truly independent, so in the future no person will be wrongly persecuted,” Lee said.
“Taiwan is now a democracy. The governing authority must not manipulate the judiciary to maintain its hold on political power. It should focus its efforts on the nation’s development,” he said.
Lee’s lawyer, Wellington Koo (顧立雄), said that “in his heart,” the former president does welcome the ruling that exonerates him and clears his name.
“Otherwise, Lee would be tainted by the charges in this late stage of his life, something he cannot accept,” Koo said.
Koo criticized the SID for reopening the case, which was closed in 2006, and then appealing the lower court’s decision to the higher court.
“Now the High Court has cleared Lee of the charges, but the damage has been done. There should be a mechanism to pursue the SID’s legal responsibility in bringing these charges,” he said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said that both the rulings proved that the SID had a political motive when it first filed charges against Lee six months before the 2012 presidential election.
“The SID was abusing its power, acting like nothing but a political henchman of [President] Ma [Ying-jeou, 馬英九] in persecuting the former president,” Huang said.
Legal experts said that as the courts had acquitted Lee, and the SID can only file an appeal with the Supreme Court if the second ruling were found to be in violation of the Constitution, the case is likely to be closed with yesterday’s ruling.
Meanwhile, yesterday’s ruling extended the prison term given to Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), a close associate of Lee and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) treasurer, to three years, from the previous two years and eight months.
The High Court said it found evidence that Liu had embezzled US$150,000 in traveler’s checks.
Liu’s lawyer, Chen Sung-tung (陳松棟), said the verdict was “unbelievable,” adding that there was no evidence that Liu embezzled state funds.
He said the verdict would be appealed to the Supreme Court.
REACHING OUT: President Tsai expressed condolences to the deceased man’s family and wished a speedy recovery to those who were wounded in the shooting The Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) on Monday called on the US to label organizations associated with the suspect in the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church shooting as domestic terrorists, following accusations that he was a member of a group backing unification with ties to the Chinese government. David Wenwei Chou (周文偉), 68, was arrested on Sunday and is being held in lieu of US$1 million bail at the Orange County Intake Release Center over a mass shooting at the California church that left one dead and five wounded. Local police suspect the shooting was politically motivated after they found notes in
NO CONSENSUS YET: Local governments and the CECC have agreed to change the ‘3+4’ self-isolation policy, but are still mulling what to replace it with The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) and local governments have agreed to ease restrictions on close contacts of COVID-19 cases, although the details are still being discussed, the center said yesterday. The discussions follow Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Saturday approving a proposal to shorten the “3+4” policy — three days of home isolation followed by four days of self-disease prevention — for close contacts who have received booster doses. “We did not reach a consensus on how to revise the current restrictions, but we all agreed that the administrative burden must be reduced and the intensity of restrictions must be eased,
OPPOSING CHINESE ‘HOSTILITY’: The bill orders the state secretary to create a plan to regain observer status for Taiwan, saying Taipei is a model contributor to world health US President Joe Biden on Friday signed a bill into law to help Taiwan regain observer status at the World Health Assembly (WHA), demonstrating Washington’s support for Taiwan’s international participation. Friday was the deadline for Biden to sign the bill (S.812), which directs “the Secretary of State to develop a strategy to regain observer status for Taiwan in the World Health Organization (WHO), and for other purposes.” The 75th WHA, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, is scheduled to meet in Geneva, Switzerland, from Sunday next week to May 28. The bill, introduced by US Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the US Senate
LIVING WITH COVID-19: Close contacts with a booster shot would no longer follow the ‘3+4’ policy, instead practicing ‘0+7,’ or self-disease prevention for seven days Close contacts of COVID-19 cases who have received a booster shot no longer need to isolate at home, but should practice seven days of “self-disease prevention,” effective today, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that starting at 12am today, close contacts — people living in the same household — of those confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 are exempt from home isolation if they have received a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. Data from other countries show that people who have received a booster shot are
RSS