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Taiwan High Court begins hearing new `soft coup' case

A second trial began at the Taiwan High Court yesterday on a defamation suit filed by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) against President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) for claiming they attempted a coup d'etat following their defeat in the 2004 presidential election.

The first trial court ruled that Chen should pay a symbolic NT$1 each to Lien and Soon and run a half-page ad in major dailies apologizing to the two opposition leaders, a ruling he appealed.

Chen's lawyer, Lin Chih-hao, said the first trial court -- the Taipei District Court -- made a mistake in regard to procedure.

Lin argued that the president's use of the words "seven days of coup d'etat" and "soft coup d'etat" did not mean the same thing.

He also produced documents to support the president's comments. He showed some classified documents to the judge that he claimed proved that there were attempts at a "soft coup d'etat." Lin requested that the court summon Lien and Soong to appear to answer questions.

Lin said he has newspaper clippings showing that Lien had said that blame should not be shifted onto retired generals and that PFP Secretary General Chin Chin-sheng (秦金生) had said that "seven days of coup d'etat" was unrelated to a "soft coup d'etat."

He claimed that the classified documents clearly record "persons, happenings, times, locations as well as evidence" that might involve privacy and the current positions of the suspects, and he asked the presiding judge to use his discretion when deciding whether or not to make the information public.

Lien's and Soong's lawyer Lee Tien-fu said the first trial followed legal procedure to arrive at its ruling and claimed that the words "seven days of coup d'etat" and "soft coup d'etat" referred to the same thing.

When the president made his accusations, he was obviously referring to Lien and Soong, he said.

The district court ruled that since Chen's accusations were groundless, and he had damaged Lien's and Soong's reputations.
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