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Wife of murdered captain confirms evidence

The wife of a navy captain who was murdered in 1993 allegedly as a result of his threats to expose a warship-kickback scandal, confirmed yesterday that she had been invited about half a year ago to listen to and help identify the voices on a key tape recording that her husband made before his death.

Lee Mei-kuei (李美葵), wife of Captain Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓), who was director of the now-defunct Navy Weapons Procurement Office, said she was invited by the investigators to listen to the recording -- which contained purported evidence of corruption by naval officers -- after the mostly erased contents of the tape were recovered by NASA scientists in the US.

Lee said she is not sure whether the recording was fully restored but that she is positive the voice on the tape is that of her husband.

She said she believes that the men who were conversing with Yin must have been important figures.

"Otherwise, my husband would not have risked his life to make the recording," she said.

Noting that she did not know all of Yin's colleagues and friends, Lee said she is not sure who the men are and does not want to recklessly identify the voices.

Yin's murder in 1993 is widely believed to be connected with the kickback scandal involving the purchase of six Lafayette-class frigates from France in 1991. Yin's body was found floating in the harbor of a navy base in northern Taiwan on Dec. 9, 1993, days after he had threatened to blow the whistle on the navy's arms procurement program.

Allegations were raised in Paris in 1996 that huge kickbacks were paid to senior officials in Paris and Taipei in connection to the deal, and former French foreign minister Roland Dumas and others were sentenced to jail terms in 2001 for receiving or offering bribes for the deal.

The government initiated its own probe into the case several years ago but failed to find any trace of the alleged kickbacks paid to officials. However, six former naval officers have been charged with inflating the price tag for the benefit of the French builders of the frigates. The government paid US$2.8 billion for the six ships.

Two military prosecutors were impeached by the Control Yuan last August for dereliction of duty. The Control Yuan members said the military prosecutors bungled the probe by failing to keep vital evidence and taking no action to prevent vital witnesses from leaving the country, thereby making later attempts to find the truth almost impossible.

The two prosecutors were also accused of failing to make a transcript of the tape recording made by Yin, which contained purported evidence, and letting the contents of the tape be erased.

A French media report last November said eight people with links to the Yin case, including two Taiwanese, have died under suspicious circumstances. Part of that report was dismissed as groundless by a Taiwanese prosecutor who was in charge of the probe.

Meanwhile, Yin's father, Yin Duo (尹鐸), said yesterday he doesn't believe investigations into his son's death are going anywhere, even with the key tape recording being recovered, given that so many years have passed and evidence and witnesses have disappeared.
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