Print

Mail

wiki links

Witnesses in Chu case claim lawyer threatened them

The lawyer for two defendants in the Chu Mei-feng (璩美鳳) sex-VCD case will be investigated over allegations he threatened witnesses, the Taipei District Court (台北地方法院) said yesterday.

Lee Ming-yu (李明諭) is defending Kuo Yu-ling (郭玉鈴), formerly Chu's spiritual teacher, and her daughter Kao Chun-chun (高淳淳) against charges they secretly filmed Chu having sex with her married lover last year and then sold the film to a magazine.

At a pre-trial hearing for the case on Friday night, Lai Shu-chen (賴淑珍) and Lin Shih-yun (林詩韻), who had worked with Kao at a dental clinic in Taipei City's Shihlin District last year, told Judge Hsu Shih-chen (徐世楨) that Lee asked them to say something good about Kao in court.

Lai and Lin said Kao had invited them to dinner on May 4 after they received summonses but had not told them that Lee would be there.

Lee told them he would like to "discuss all the possible questions that the judges, prosecutors or other lawyers might ask in court," they said.

The lawyer asked them to "say something good about Kao" in court and that he had a "good relationship with local mafia," they said.

After Lai and Lin completed their testimony on Friday, Senior Prosecutor Chang Hsi-huai (張熙懷) immediately requested the court to protect them.

"Lee's behavior has violated the Criminal Code (刑法) and the Attorney Regulation Law (律師法)," Chang said in court.

Lee told the court that there had been a misunderstanding. "I know how serious and dangerous this could be and I would not risk my career by doing this," he said.

"What I told them was that I will do my best to help. I also told them that it is not easy to be a defendant's lawyer and lawyers can be threatened by the mafia as well. That was what I said."
This story has been viewed 2473 times.