Court hears case of Chiang Ching-kuo's daughter

The Taipei District Court has begun hearing a libel suit filed by the late president Chiang Ching-kuo's (蔣經國) daughter and her husband over a book that suggested the late president greatly disapproved of their marriage.

Chiang Hsiao-chang (蔣孝章), the only daughter of the late president, and her husband Yu Yang-ho (俞揚和), son of late Defense Minister Yu Tai-wei (俞大維), filed the criminal suit against Wen Ha-hsiung (溫哈熊), former commander of the Combined Services Force General Headquarters, for his allegations that the junior Yu had "seduced" Chiang while he was still married to his second wife.

Neither the suing couple, who now reside in San Francisco, nor the accused appeared at the court hearing yesterday. Nevertheless, through his lawyer, Wen issued a statement stressing how the late president had been upset with his son-in-law.

"Yu and Chiang got married very soon after they met. Mr Chiang was extremely shocked after learning of the marriage because Yu had already been married before and was much older than Ms Chiang," Wen said in the statement.

"Mr Chiang had tried to gather information on how their relationship started, but the messages he received about Yu were all very negative. But it was too late for him to stop them," Wen wrote. "The comments I've made in interviews were my recollections of how Mr Chiang regretted that his beloved daughter married the wrong man."

The libel suit challenged the content of a history book containing a compilation of interviews with Wen published by Academia Sinica in 1997.

In the interviews, Wen, father-in-law of KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), recalled his service with the then-National Defense Ministry in 1950s and his personal encounters with Chiang Ching-kuo, who at that time served as defense minister.

Wen said Chiang Hsiao-chang went to the US to study and lived with the Yu family in 1959. He said Yu, then married with children, had "seduced" Chiang and "got her pregnant."

He also said Yu's father had been "on his knees" to beg Yu's second wife to "do their family a favor" by agreeing to a divorce.

The defense lawyer, Tsai Kuo-tung (蔡國棟), argued in court that the book was published four years ago and that the suit was filed long after the six-month statute of limitations.

Wang Ching-feng (王清峰), the lawyer for Chiang and Yu, said the couple did not know about the book until February this year and they had asked Wen to apologize and make corrections to the disputed content.

However, Wen refused the request and thus the couple decided to take the case to the court, Wang said.

The lawyer said the couple got married after Yu divorced his second wife in 1960 and that he had no children at the time. She also added Ms Chiang did not get pregnant until they got married.

In the published interviews, Wen also accused Yu of having taken advantage of his privileges as the late president's son-in-law.

Wang said her clients felt hurt by the "false" allegations, but that they are also open to the possibility of an out-of-court settlement as long as Wen admits his wrongdoing and offers an apology.

Wang also said they will file a related civil suit next week, in which Academia Sinica is also listed as a co-defendant with Wen.

The next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 19 and trial judge Wu Ding-ya (吳定亞) asked both the plaintiffs and the accused to attend the next session.