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Hsieh's accuser apologized publicly, campaigners say

Democratic Progressive Party presidential nominee Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) campaign team yesterday continued to rebut accusations that Hsieh served as a secret informant for the Investigation Bureau during the Martial Law era, saying one of the accusers in 2004 publicly apologized for making false allegations against Hsieh.

Hsieh's campaign spokesmen Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) and Hsu Kuo-yong (徐國勇) said Hsieh, a lawyer, sued two media professionals, Hsu Jung-chi (許榮棋) and Bai Hsun (白瑄), in 1998 for claiming he had been an informant for the bureau.

Six years later, in April 27, 2004, Bai reportedly wrote a personal letter to Hsieh to apologize for the false allegation and the inconvenience it had caused, the spokesmen said.

The next day, after receiving the letter from Bai, Hsieh went to the Taipei High Court to drop all charges against him, saying the letter proved Bai had only been manipulated by others.

"The entire accusation against Hsieh is the pan-blue camp's way of diverting attention from the controversy surrounding [Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate] Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) green card," Hsu Kuo-yong told reporters.

At the same press conference, the campaign also accused Ma of lying repeatedly about his role in his sister Ma Yi-nan's (馬以南) business relations with the Taipei City Municipal Hospital during his term as mayor in 1998.

On Saturday, Hsieh's campaign office accused Ma Ying-jeou of violating the Public Officials' Conflicts of Interests Prevention Act (公職人員利益衝突迴避法), saying Ma Yi-nan, the former deputy manager of China Chemical Pharmaceutical Co, had been granted sole distribution rights for drugs sold to Taipei City Municipal Hospital.

Ma Ying-jeou has denied the allegation, saying his sister was not involved in selling medicine to the hospital.

Hsieh's spokesmen yesterday said that although Ma Yi-nan's position at the pharmaceutical firm did not concern drug sales, her other position at a subsidiary of the company was in sales.

When asked for comment during a visit to family members of late political figure Lin Hsien-tang (林獻堂) in Taichung County yesterday, Ma Ying-jeou said Hsieh's camp was welcome to contact prosecutors if his sister did anything illegal. He did not elaborate.

Additional reporting by Flora Wang

Also see: Why Hsieh was not an informant
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