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Tuan Yi-kang refuses to apologize to Lien family

Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said yesterday he would not apologize to former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) daughter, Lien Hui-hsin (連惠心), despite a court decision ordering him to do so.

"I was questioning her father, not her," Tuan told a press conference yesterday. "I did not do anything wrong, so I do not understand why I should apologize."

TAX EVASION

The dispute stemmed from the slander lawsuit Lien Hui-hsin filed against Tuan in 2004 when Lien Chan was running for the presidency as the KMT candidate.

At the time, Tuan, in his capacity as DPP legislator, accused Lien Chan of evading taxes.

Tuan, referring to official documents containing Lien Hui-hsin's name, said he suspected that her bank account was being used as one of Lien Chan's dummy accounts for money laundering.

TRANSFER

Tuan said the documents showed that the Taipei City Tax Bureau suspected Lien Hui-hsin of tax fraud on Aug. 15, 1991.

He said that on July 30 Lien Hui-hsin relocated her household registration to Tamsui (淡水), Taipei County, meaning that responsibility for the case had to be shifted from the Taipei City Tax Bureau to the one in Taipei County.

OLD FRIEND

Tuan said that the then head of the Taiwan County Tax Department, Lin Suei-sheng (林燧生), was an old friend of the Liens and that Lien Hui-hsin's case was closed without any explanation.

After the case was closed, Lin was promoted to deputy treasurer of the Taiwan Province Government when Lien Chan was governor, Tuan said.

In addition to the slander suit, Lien Hui-hsin filed a compensation request from Tuan.

The court ruled that Tuan was innocent of slander, but a final verdict said that Tuan had to carry out Lien Hui-hsin's request that he print an apology in a major Chinese-language newspaper.

"This final verdict is neither convincing nor logical," Tuan said.

"It does not make sense for judges to believe that I did not slander her only to request that I apologize to her," he said.

Tuan said he was considering filing a constitutional interpretation request on the case.
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