Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) office yesterday threatened to take legal action against political commentator Sisy Chen (陳文茜) if she failed to produce evidence to back her claim that the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) suspected the former president had smuggled US dollars overseas.
The former president’s office issued a statement dismissing the allegation made by Sisy Chen and challenged her to offer a clear account of who at the SIP told her that Chen Shui-bian had secretly shipped US dollars abroad and when the source made this claim.
The statement said all expenses related to the former president’s state visits were arranged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and there were records of the money, including how and where the money was spent.
“The allegation has no basis in truth and makes no sense at all,” the statement said. “The former president has never taken advantage of his state visits to smuggle private money overseas.”
Sisy Chen wrote in her column in Saturday’s edition of the Chinese-language Apple Daily that the former president insisted on conducting a state visit abroad at the height of a corruption scandal in 2006 and now the SIP suspected that he had smuggled US dollars abroad.
Sisy Chen said in the story, whose headline read “Turn the ugly page,” that the former president benefited financially from the “second financial reform,” in which local banks were encouraged to merge to expand their market shares. She also said he handpicked three younger up-and-coming party members to run for top jobs in Taipei County, Taichung City and Kaohsiung City.
All of them lost because of complications caused by a riot staged by foreign laborers working on the construction of Kaohsiung City’s mass rapid transit system, she said.
The former president’s wife, on the other hand, was hiding a vast amount of money, Sisy Chen said, adding that a caller to a TV program had informed her that the former first lady put the money in Cathay United Bank.
In addition to requesting that Sisy Chen prove her claims, the office asked the SIP to clarify whether it had leaked the information on an ongoing case.
The office did not want to see media outlets break the law or commit human rights violations, the statement said.
Meanwhile, the former president yesterday began to eat solid food.
After agreeing to drink some liquid drawn from boiled rice on last Wednesday, the former president began to eat congee on Friday.
He has been detained without charge since Nov. 12 and had refused to eat since Nov. 13 in protest at what he called “political persecution.”
He is suspected of money laundering, accepting bribes, forgery and embezzling NT$15 million (US$448,000) during his presidency.
The former president has accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration of waging a “political vendetta” against him to curry favor with China.
The former president’s lawyer, Cheng Wen-long (鄭文龍), told reporters after visiting his client at the Taipei Detention Center yesterday afternoon that his client has resumed eating and his health has gradually improved.
Cheng said he would request that the detention center provide his client with newspapers, which is a privilege detainees are usually denied.
Cheng said that his client has finished writing a book chronicling his detention so far and is in the process of writing another on Taiwanese independence.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese