An angry Minister of National Defense Wu Shih-wen (伍世文) yesterday refuted allegations by an opposition legislator that he might be concealing information in connection with the 1993 murder of naval captain Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓).
People First Party Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) accused the defense minister of not revealing information on weapons purchase scandals surrounding the Yin murder, at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan Defense Committee yesterday.
Quoting a key witness to the Dec. 9, 1993 murder, Lee alleged that Yin had sought help from Wu two days before he was killed and that Wu revealed to him who had planned to harm him.
Wu was deputy chief of the general staff, while Yin was responsible for weapons purchases, including high-profile armaments such as French-made Lafayette-class frigates.
The key witness quoted by Lee was captain Kuo Li-heng (
Considered to know the circumstances of Yin's murder, as well as the surrounding scandals, Kuo had kept quiet over the past five years despite the efforts of a cross-department investigation team. At one point a US hypnotist was asked to join the interrogation effort.
Quoting Kuo, whom Lee visited on Tuesday at a Taipei military jail along with Yin's widow Li Mei-kuei (李美葵), Lee said, "In a meeting with Wu two days before he was murdered, Yin was told by Wu that the man most likely to do him harm over the weapons purchase issue was Yang Ching-tao (楊清島). Yang was identified by Wu as a person who worked at an arms brokerage company based in southern Taiwan."
Wu denied the allegations, saying he had no idea on what grounds Kuo made the charges.
Wu also denied other allegations by Kuo which suggested the defense minister had very close relations with ex-naval officer and arms broker Chu Peng-li (祝本立), who was one of the 16 civilians discovered to be involved in weapons purchase-related bribery scandals exposed in the wake of the Yin murder.
"We were by no means sworn brothers. I had never joined a secret society existing in the armed forces," as Kuo had alleged, Wu said.
Responding to Wu's self-defense, captain Yin's widow Li told the Taipei Times that she believed Wu was covering the truth, although she did not fully trust what Kuo had told to her and legislator Lee.
"Kuo's confession to us may be revealing in some way and misleading in other ways. But so is Wu's defense of himself," she said.
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