Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (
"This fund was very important for our relations with South Africa. As minister of foreign affairs, I was merely following the `top authority's' orders," Hu said before he walked into the courtroom.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
When asked who the "top authority" was, Hu replied, "What do you think?"
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Taipei District Court Judges Liao Wen-yu (廖紋妤), Huang Shao-hung (黃紹紘) and Liu Huang-chi (劉煌基) also summoned Su Chih-cheng (蘇志誠), former top aide of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), and Yang Ching-chi (楊清吉), former chief accountant of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as witnesses in the case.
Su and Yang did not have any comments and left the court building right after the arraignment.
The session was held in camera because judges' questions to the witnesses concerned matters of national security and classified information.
According to Hu, when he was handling the secret fund as foreign minister, he always followed all orders, that were delivered by Su.
Su was Lee's top aide at the time. Hu said that he did not do anything illegal regarding the secret fund.
The scandal started with the disappearance in 1994 of US$4.5 million from a secret fund of US$10.58 million to secure diplomatic relations with South Africa. According to prosecutors, the National Security Bureau (NSB) paid the money to South Africa on behalf of the foreign ministry in May, 1994.
On April 4, 1999, the ministry returned a total of US$10.7 million, including interest, to the bureau. The bureau's former chief accountant, Hsu Ping-chiang (徐炳強), allegedly asked its then chief cashier Liu Kuan-chun (劉冠軍) to deposit US$7.5 million in the Taiwan Research Institute's bank account.
Liu is suspected of embezzling more than NT$192 million from the total amount. According to the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation, Liu left Taiwan on Sept. 3, 2000, and went to Shanghai. He surfaced in Bangkok in January, 2002 and then went to North America. According to sources, he was seen recently in Canada.
On Nov. 17 last year, the Taipei Prosecutors' Office charged Hsu and Liu with corruption.
Taiwan Research Institute president Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) had allegedly wired the money to Ruentex Corp Chairman Yin Yen-liang's (尹衍樑) bank accounts in the US and Singapore. Yin then allegedly wired the money to one of Ruentex's bank accounts in Taiwan, after which he "donated" US$3 million of it to the institute.
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