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Tsai Ing-wen agrees to attend rally

Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen, right, former chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, Chen Po-chih, center, and professor of chemical engineering at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology Liu Chin-hsin share a light moment during a talk on President Ma Ying-jeou’s economic policies in Taipei yesterday. PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES

Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will attend a rally tonight to support former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and address the retreat of justice and human rights, Chen’s office said yesterday.

The event, organized by Chen’s office and several pro-independence groups, will begin at 7pm at Yuanshan Park in Taipei and last until 10pm.

Chen was detained on Wednesday last week on suspicion of money laundering, taking bribes, forgery and embezzlement during his two terms in office between 2000 and earlier this year.

He denied the allegations and immediately began a hunger strike when he was detained to protest what he called “political persecution.”

Chen has yet to be indicted, but Taiwan’s law permits suspects to be held for up to four months while prosecutors prepare their cases.

To avoid focusing solely on Chen, the organizers said the gathering would be a rally for “Taiwan, our nation, sovereignty, democracy, human rights and justice,” and had been urging Tsai, who had declined to confirm whether she would attend or not, to join the event.

“He was questioned about all aspects of his case.”

— Chen Yun-nan, Special Investigation Panel spokesman

In a press release yesterday, the office announced that Tsai would attend the event. DPP heavyweights including former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), former DPP chairmen Yu Shyi-kun and Su Cheng-chang (蘇貞昌) will also attend.

Tsai said on Monday that she might attend the rally if the organizers focused on the theme of justice and human rights.

The rally will begin with a prayer ceremony led by Reverend Lo Rong-kuang (羅榮光), a minister in the Taiwan Presbyterian Church. Tsai, independence activists and other politicians would address the rally on issues of human rights and justice, the office said.

Former Examination Yuan president Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文), one of the organizers of the event, said earlier this week that the rally would address various issues, but it would focus in part on the detention of Chen and topics surrounding his case.

The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP) spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) said yesterday that a team of prosecutors had questioned Chen Shui-bian at the Taipei Detention Center in Tucheng (土城), Taipei County, with Chen Shui-bian’s lawyer Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍) present.

“He was questioned about all aspects of his case,” Chen Yun-nan said, without elaborating.

In August, Chen Shui-bian admitted that he broke the law by not fully disclosing the campaign donations he had received after a lawmaker from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) alleged that Chen’s son and daughter-in-law transferred US$21 million to Switzerland last year and then forwarded the funds to the Cayman Islands.

At the time, prosecutors said they wanted to determine whether the funds were indeed donations left over from political campaigns as Chen argued or if bribery might have been involved.

Until a couple of years ago, Taiwan didn’t have a law to regulate political contributions.

In order to get to the bottom of the intricate money laundering and graft allegations, prosecutors have already searched the former president’s residence twice, questioned all members of his family and taken several into custody, including Chen Shui-bian, a former vice premier, a former investigation chief and Chen Shui-bian’s former aides.

Meanwhile, Taipei District Court spokesman Huang Chun-min (黃俊明) yesterday afternoon said that the former first family’s acquaintance, Tsai Ming-cher (蔡銘哲), and the National Science Council’s Industrial Park Administration director-general Lee Chieh-mu (李界木), both detained in the probe, had been released on NT$3 million (US$90,900) bail and NT$500,000 bail respectively. Both are barred from leaving the country.

The court believed that it was no longer necessary to detain them, Huang said.

On Thursday, former presidential treasurer Chen Chen-hui (陳鎮慧), who was the first to be detained on Sept. 25 in the high-profile case, was freed without conditions attached.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AP AND CNA
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