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President's daughter loses appeal in slander lawsuit

President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) daughter, Chen Hsin-yu (陳幸妤), lost an appeal on Tuesday when the Taiwan High Court upheld a lower court ruling that a political commentator's allegations that she was involved in laundering money in the US in September 2005 did not constitute slander.

The decision is final.

Chen Hsin-yu filed the lawsuit against Hu Chung-hsin (胡忠信) after the commentator alleged during a TV talk show in October of that year that she had used a trip to New York as a pretext to open a bank account to help her father conceal his assets.

Chen Hsin-yu, a dentist, stayed in New York City between Sept. 12 and Sept. 16, 2005, to attend a short course on dental implant techniques, but Hu said she was seen in the company of friends opening an account with a New York bank. Hu did not cite any sources.

The court's ruling said Hu told the court a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member had told him about the matter and that the individual had confirmed this to the court.

Another dentist from Taiwan, who attended the same course, testified that Chen Hsin-yu skipped class one afternoon.

The court said it could not be ruled out that she might have used that opportunity to open the account.

Although the court asked the Ministry of Justice to verify whether she had opened an account, the ministry pointed out that it could not request help from the US with such an investigation because opening a bank account does not constitute a criminal act, the statement said.

The high court ruling said that although Hu's allegations were not proven to be true, Hu had attempted to check the information before he went public with it.

The court ruling also said that Hu's comments concerned a matter of public interest and therefore did not constitute slander.

The Taipei District Court found Hu not guilty in August.

Chen Hsin-yu, unhappy with the district court ruling, had told reporters: "Taiwan's courts only judge cases by their green or blue motives, they do not consider what is right or wrong."

Hu yesterday said he was pleased the court had cleared his name.
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