Libel case suffers setback

With two major witnesses out of the country, the vice president's libel suit against The Journalist (新新聞周報) appears to have ground to a halt.

Tseng Chao-ming (曾昭明), a secretary in the Presidential Office, has resigned from his post to finish his PhD program in the UK, lawyers for Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) told the Taipei District Court yesterday.

Chen Shih-ning (陳詩寧), a Public TV producer, has also resigned to study in China, trial judge Lai Yung-hua (賴泱樺) heard yesterday.

The information has come as surprise not only to the judge -- who has just returned from two months of study in the US himself -- but also to the defense, which claims it knew nothing about the departures of the two witnesses.

The news is a setback for The Journalist, which says the two witnesses can verify its claim made in an article last year that Lu was spreading rumors about President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in a bid to unseat him.

Wang Chien-chuang (王建壯), president of The Journalist, insisted yesterday that the court continue to subpoena the pair, saying their testimony was crucial to discovery of the truth in this case.

Wang contended the two left because they were involuntarily exposed to the media and faced enormous pressure. He blamed the vice president's camp for leaking their identities.

"Had they not been exposed to the media, the court could have gotten their testimony," Wang said.

"They have been under enormous pressure after the exposure, and apparently the pressure does not come from The Journalist," he said, suggesting the vice president's side has attempted to obstruct Tseng and Chen's testimony.

Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), an attorney for the vice president, was quick to respond to Wang's attacks, saying The Journalist had probably set everything up so that the case could never be resolved.

"It's their hope to stall the case indefinitely because they know they're lying about the vice president," she said.

Lu's lawyers said that Tseng and Chen have dodged four court subpoenas since June and the court should not delay proceedings because of them. The lawyers requested that arguments be heard immediately.

But Lai decided the court should first confirm the reasons for the witnesses' absence before arguments begin.

"If the witnesses refuse to testify, it'll apparently weaken the defendant's case. But above all, I have to make sure the dignity of law is maintained," Lai said.

"If witnesses are allowed to dodge the court's subpoena like this, there'll be big problems for the court to call witnesses in the future," he added.

The judge asked The Journalist to hand in information about the residences of the two witnesses in two weeks.

Lu filed the suit against The Journalist last December to seek the restoration of her reputation after the magazine published a controversial article about her a month before.

In the suit, Lu is calling for The Journalist to apologize for accusing her of spreading rumors that Chen was having an affair with his translator.