Sat, Jun 30, 2007 page3

• President's hearings to be private: court

  SO PREDICTABLE Although prosecutors have reviewed seized 'state affairs fund' case materials, pan-blue politicians blasted the Presidential Office's request to retrieve them

  • By Rich Chang and Shih Hsiu-chuan / STAFF REPORTERS
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  The Taipei District Court announced yesterday that the majority of its hearings on President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) "state affairs fund" case would be held behind closed doors.

  The announcement came in the wake of the constitutional interpretation handed down by the Council of Grand Justices on June 15. The interpretation confirmed the president's constitutional right to decide what constitutes a state secret and his right to refuse disclosure.

  The Council of Grand Justices ruled the president enjoys immunity from criminal investigation and cannot be questioned by prosecutors during his tenure.

  The president, with the authority conferred upon him by the Constitution and its additional articles, has the privilege of keeping secret classified information concerning national security, national defense and diplomacy if he determines that their disclosure would compromise national security and interests, the council said.

  This privilege includes the right to refuse to give testimony and to produce evidence for that purpose in court.

  "The court values the ruling of the Council of Grand Justices and decides the case concerns national security elements. From now on the case will proceed behind closed doors," Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) said at the beginning of the hearing yesterday.

  Reporters and auditors were then asked to leave the courtroom.

  Chen on Thursday asked Taipei District Court to return within five days all materials collected as evidence in the case, saying in a statement that the Council of Grand Justices had ruled that the president has the right to refuse to surrender documents to the court.

  The president was referring to the material Prosecutor Eric Chen (陳瑞仁) seized from the Presidential Office when he was investigating the "state affairs fund" case. First lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) and three former Presidential Office aides were indicted on charges of corruption for allegedly embezzling NT$14.8 million (US$449,000) from the fund.

  Taipei District Court spokesman Liu Shou-sung (劉壽嵩) told reporters yesterday that the court had yet to decide on how it would handle the president's request.

  Meanwhile, the Presidential Office yesterday issued a statement saying that Eric Chen had never gained the president's permission to seize the materials he collected from the Presidential Office as evidence in the "state affairs fund" case.

  "Eric Chen called the Presidential Office on July 31 [last year] before he came. When he arrived, he showed a written order demanding the documents, saying that he would take the next step should the Presidential Office reject his request," the statement said.

  "Then [Eric Chen] impounded the documents and left. He didn't meet with the president, nor did he acquire the president's consent to his request," it said.

  In response, Eric Chen yesterday said: "President Chen should have known that I'd entered the Presidential Office to take those documents."

  Pan-blue lawmakers, meanwhile, yesterday blasted the president's request to retrieve the document from the court.

  "The move reflects the fact that the president is scared of being found guilty," Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said. "As the court is preparing to reach its first verdict, we urge the president to keep his hands off the judiciary."

  People First Party Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) said the president's request to have the documents returned meant that he wished to interfere with a judicial investigation.

  Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲), on the other hand, argued that the president's request did not obstruct justice because prosecutors and lawyers had already read through the documents.

  "Retrieving the secret documents does not mean that the investigation into this case would be obstructed," he said.

  DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said the president's request was "legitimate" and "constitutional" because it was based on the Grand Justices' ruling.

  Additional reporting by Flora Wang
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