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Presidential election 2008: 6 days to go: Prosecutors probe clash at Frank Hsieh's offices

Prosecutors and police in Taipei have begun investigating the clashes that broke out at the campaign headquarters of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) on Wednesday.

The move came after four Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators -- Alex Fai (費鴻泰), Chen Chieh (陳杰), Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) and Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) -- paid an unexpected visit to Hsieh's campaign headquarters to check whether the owner of the building, state-run First Commercial Bank, had rented out the office space to the Hsieh campaign for free.

The visit outraged Hsieh's supporters, who considered the move provocative and trespassing on private property.

A melee soon broke out when the supporters tried to block police from escorting the lawmakers away from the site.

Prosecutors on Friday summoned Lien Jih-rong (連日榮), president of First Bank's special assets management division, to shed light on the matter.

They also asked five cable television stations to provide copies of their video recordings of the incident to help determine if the lawmakers intruded into a private property.

Prosecutors had summoned First Bank president Wu Chin-yun (吳清雲) and the president of its parent firm, Huang Hsien-chuang (黃獻全) of First Financial Holding Co, on Thursday as witnesses to clarify whether the Hsieh campaign was legally renting the place.

Security guards who were posted at Hsieh's campaign headquarters when the clashes occurred were also brought in for questioning on how the melee broke out.

Meanwhile, police also said that they would refer five suspects suspected of smashing a police car's windows at the scene of the altercation for investigation and prosecution.

Officials at Hsieh's headquarters filed complaints against the lawmakers for trespassing on private property, endangering the safety of the candidate and violating the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Law (總統副總統選舉罷免法).

The KMT lawmakers accused DPP campaign officials of restricting their freedom of movement, violating the same act and spreading false allegations.
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