DPP lawmaker asks why Lee failed to probe Lei Chen case

A DPP lawmaker yesterday challenged former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to clarify why he failed to probe the Lei Chen affair despite the end of marital rule when he was in power.

DPP Legislator Peter Lin (林進興) issued a statement urging Lee, now the spiritual leader of the TSU, to shed light on his role in the handling of the late political dissident's prison diaries and other documents.

In 1960, Lei, the publisher of the Free China biweekly, was jailed for 10 years on the charge of sedition.

Lin noted that former chief of the general staff Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) claimed in his diary that a presidential meeting on April 27, 1988 reached a decision to withhold materials relating to the affair.

Two days later, the authorities reportedly destroyed them, saying they were empowered to confiscate and dispose of prisoners' private belongings, the DPP legislator said.

"Lee should explain whether he gave his nod to the handling of Lai's papers," Lin said. "The public will understand if he was prompted by the specter of a potential coup by Hau and his followers."

Earlier, the former president told Control Yuan officials probing the scandal linked to the purchase of Lafayette-class frigates that he approved the deal mainly to placate military leaders.

"Lee should clarify his stance so history may do him justice regarding the episode," Lin said.

On Wednesday, Academia Historica published three volumes of formerly classified documents on Lei. The documents chronicled how the pro-democracy fighter stood up to the late president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in an attempt to organize an opposition party during the White Terror era.