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Judiciary mulling punishment for Lee Wen-cheng

The Judicial Yuan's disciplinary committee will decide this week whether to suspend a Taiwan High Court judge for advising former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Chen Che-nan (陳哲男) how to cover up his crimes before the latter was questioned by prosecutors in April.

"The Judicial Yuan has received a report from the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office on its investigation into Taiwan High Court judge Lee Wen-cheng's (李文成) involvement in the bribery case against Chen Che-nan. The Judicial Yuan's disciplinary committee will decide this week how it will discipline Lee," a Judicial Yuan press statement said yesterday.

The Judicial Yuan was left with egg on its face on Friday because in its earlier investigation, it accepted Lee's statement that the judge, Chen and Yang Chen-feng (楊振豐), a sauna owner and key figure in the bribery case against Chen, had only met as friends and did not have any improper contact.

However, the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office's report said that Lee had finally admitted to meeting Chen and Yang on March 29 and April 3, and teaching them how to cover up their alleged crimes.

Chen was indicted on Friday on suspicion of accepting NT$7.11 million (US$222,188) from businessman Liang Po-hsun (梁柏薰) through Yang to bribe the judges in an embezzlement trial against Liang in 2004.

After Liang was sentenced to 14 months in jail, Chen returned NT$3 million to him, but kept the remaining NT$4.11 million.

Prosecutors also discovered that Lee had been present at Yang's residence, where Chen Che-nan, Yang and Liang's girlfriend surnamed Chen negotiated the return of the money in 2004.

Lee resigned from his post as a division chief at the Taiwan High Court, but continues to serve as a judge there.

Prosecutors on Friday said that Lee did not break any criminal law.

Meanwhile, the Taipei District Court yesterday denied Chen Che-nan's request to be released on bail.

"Chen Che-nan said he had not committed any crime. The judges decided to continue detaining Chen Che-nan's because he might destroy or falsify evidence, or confer with other defendants. Moreover, the charges against him are considered heavy crimes," Taipei District Court spokesman Liu Shou-sung (劉壽嵩) told reporters yesterday.

Aside from bribery charges, Chen was also accused of profiting from insider trading.
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