Presidential election 2008: 2 days to go: Men denounce paper's claims they pose threat to Ma

Two men being watched by security authorities because of alleged plots against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) proclaimed their innocence yesterday.

The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday that authorities believed Wu Chia-cheng (吳家政), 51, was possibly plotting to attack Ma with Molotov cocktails or by immolating himself in front of the KMT candidate ahead of Saturday's election.

The newspaper said Wu is the ex-husband of a woman, surnamed Wong, who allegedly had an affair with Ma's late father, Ma Ho-ling (馬鶴凌).

The paper said Wu had told friends on several occasions that he was considering committing violence to hurt Ma because of his hatred for Ma and his family.

The newspaper said Huang Wen-tien (黃文典), 52, had visited KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) and told him that there were people planning to assassinate Ma in a suicide bomb attack.

Ting relayed the information to security authorities, who then determined that Huang himself was someone who might carry out such an attack, the newspaper said.

It said Huang had several convictions for threats and offenses against personal liberty.

National Police Agency official Wu Chi-jui (吳啟瑞) told reporters yesterday that the agency had received information on possible assassination attempts against Ma, and that it was monitoring several people, but it did not have solid evidence of any plot and no one had been charged yet.

Both Wu Chia-cheng and Huang proclaimed their innocence.

Wu called a press conference to declare the allegation against him was groundless. He said he had never thought about attacking Ma. He said he suspected Ma's camp had fabricated the allegation to obtain sympathy votes.

Huang appeared at the legislature to tell reporters he was innocent. He said he offered information about assassination plots to Ting, but was then wrongly accused of being the instigator.