Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday said he had nothing to hide and welcomed the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) of the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office to investigate his records.
Lee made the remarks on his way to Chiayi City to attend a Friends of Lee event yesterday. He was approached by reporters for comment on the money-laundering allegation against him.
On Friday, SIP Spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) said his office was looking into allegations that Lee laundered more than NT$1.6 billion (US$48 million) during his time in office. In response to press inquiries, Chen said the probe was prompted by a tip-off from former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
However, one of Chen Shui-bian’s attorneys, Shih Yi-ling (石宜琳), later that day said his client had nothing to do with the probe into Lee’s financial dealings and that the rumor was “probably started by some opportunistic politicians.”
Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉), secretary-general of the Taiwan Solidarity Union, of which Lee is the spiritual leader, has urged prosecutors to clear Lee’s reputation as soon as possible by conducting a thorough investigation.
Lee served as Taiwan’s president from 1988 to 2000 and was succeeded by Chen Shui-bian, who stepped down this year.
Chen Shui-bian was indicted on Dec. 12 on charges of embezzling government funds and laundering money.
The 86-year-old Lee, described by media as sharing a father-son relationship with Chen Shui-bian, said yesterday that Chen Shui-bian was “never like a son to me.”
“It would be terrible if I had a bad son like him,” Lee said, adding that he never viewed Chen as a son. “[Chen] is trying to smear others in the hopes of whitening himself. I sleep fine at night.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
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Central and southern Taiwan are to see increasingly heavy rainfall from last night through Friday due to the effects of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said Tropical Storm Co-May had weakened into a low-pressure system on Saturday, but that it strengthened again into a tropical depression (TD 11) near the seas around Japan's Ryukyu Islands due to favorable environmental conditions. The tropical depression is expected to persist for two to three days, moving west-northwest by this afternoon and reaching China's Zhejiang through the East China Sea tomorrow,
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