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Arraignment on tap in navy corruption scandal

Whether former navy captain Kuo Li-heng (郭力恆) will reveal any further secrets about the navy's minesweeper-procurement scandal will be the focus of attention during an arraignment related to the case that is scheduled for today.

"Monday's arraignment will be presided over by Judge Liu Fang-tsu (劉芳慈) and will be the last preparation meeting before the official trial begins on Tuesday," said Huang Jiunn-ming (黃俊明), spokesman for the Taipei District Court.

The Taipei District Court is scheduled to hear the case from tomorrow to Thursday.

Kuo, who is serving a life sentence for taking bribes and disclosing classified information, is expected to testify against other defendants in the case beginning at 9:30am today.

Preparation meetings allow judges, plaintiffs and defendants to confirm indictments and set up hearing dates. Usually, there are only one or two preparation meetings before judges begin to hear a case. However, for this case, the Taipei District Court has held more than 10 meetings since Sept. 12, 2001.

The minesweeper-procurement scandal is closely related to the Lafayette scandal because both cases involved the same people and the same period of time.

The three defendants in the case are former navy commander-in-chief Admiral Yeh Chang-tung (葉昌桐), former Commander Yuan Yu-fan (袁友范) and former Lieutenant-commander Peng Chi-kang (彭繼岡).

Yuan was the officer in charge of the navy's minesweeper procurement operations when he served at the Navy General Headquarters more than a decade ago. At that time, Peng was stationed in Germany and was involved in weapons procurement.

In 1991, Yuan allegedly forged documents that authorized about DM674,000 (US$329,000) of public funds to flow into Peng's personal account at the Germany-based Bremen Bank.

The move allegedly allowed Peng to illegally pocket the interest that the money earned.

The principal made its way to Abeking and Rasmussen GmbH and Co, a German manufacturer.
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