The Taipei District Court yesterday refused a request by former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to seize documents pertaining to President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) use of his special mayoral allowance during his time as mayor of Taipei.
"We wanted the court to see the documents because the documents would indicate that the way President Chen received his mayoral special allowance during his tenure was the same as Ma, and that it was a customary practice for most government officials," attorney Song Yao-ming (宋耀明) told the court during the fourth hearing of Ma's corruption trial.
"There is no need to seize the documents. If the defendant's side wanted to learn how Chen used his mayoral allowances, they should ask the court to summon Taipei City Government staff who handled Chen's accounting," Prosecutor Hou Shao-ching (
PHOTO: CNA
Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (
Prosecutors then asked that Judicial Yuan Vice President Huang Wen-luan (
Hou said the Control Yuan had cited the three men as "models" for their handling of their special allowances and that the three had only applied to receive special allowances when they actually spent the money on the public.
Song said 80 percent of government officials treated their special allowance the same way as Ma had, and the three high-ranking judicial officials were exceptions to the rule so that their behavior could not be used as evidence.
Tsai did not grant the prosecutors' request to summon the trio.
The former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman is on trial for allegedly misusing a special allowance fund during his eight years as Taipei mayor. Ma is accused of embezzling NT$11 million (US$333,000). He has admitted to taking some of the special allowance for personal use.
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