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KMT legislative caucus accuses prosecutor of bias

The Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) legislative caucus yesterday accused Prosecutor Hou Kuan-jen (侯寬仁) of being biased after Hou called another prosecutor biased.

Hou worked on the probe into former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) alleged misuse of his special allowance fund and indicted Ma last month on corruption charges.

Chen Ming-chih (陳明進), a prosecutor with the Tainan District Prosecutors' Office, worked on the probe into similar allegations against Tainan mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and decided not to indict Hsu.

Hou alleged that between December 1998 and last July, Ma wired half of his monthly special allowance -- NT$170,000 -- directly into a personal account. Hou also saidthat Ma had NT$11,176,227 in bank accounts in his and his wife's names.

The difference in how Hou and Chen have dealt with similar cases sparked a heated debate when Chen criticized Hou's decision to indict Ma and Hou replied by calling Chen biased.

The debate evolved into a broader political issue yesterday when the KMT decided to make public its opinion on the situation.

During a press conference yesterday morning, KMT Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰) called Hou's comment inappropriate and said Hou's own bias had led him to call Chen partial.

Fai also said that Hou's bias could be the reason progress has been slow in investigations into the use of the special allowance funds of the DPP's four presidential hopefuls.

The KMT caucus filed corruption lawsuits against the DPP's four presidential hopefuls -- former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun -- not long after the probe into allegations against Ma was launched, Fai said.

Investigations of the four DPP figures have not yet reached any conclusion.
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