Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday maintained his silence during his trial for corruption, but expressed his anger through a spokesperson about his son and daughter being named as defendants in a related perjury case.
Yesterday was the first day of a week of consecutive full-day court appearances for the former president. Hundreds of his supporters again gathered outside the Taipei District Court to show their dissatisfaction with the judicial process.
They were clad in green shirts and carried signs with slogans calling for the release of the former president and protesting the unfair judicial system.
Among them was Chen’s secretary Chiang Chih-ming (江志銘). Asked for comment outside the courthouse, he said that the former president was extremely distressed after events on Monday, when his son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), daughter Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤) and son-in-law Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘) were questioned by prosecutors on perjury charges.
“[The former president] is very angry that the case now involves his whole family, and with no mercy,” Chiang said. “[He] thinks that the cases involving [people in his] generation should not involve the second generation [his children].”
“He thinks it’s a political witch hunt that is directed at his entire family and no one will be left alone,” he said.
The three, along with former chairman of the Taipei Financial Center Co, Diana Chen (陳敏薰), were charged with perjury on June 3. The three on Monday admitted to giving false testimony regarding Chen Shui-bian’s money laundering and embezzlement charges.
Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) had scheduled yesterday’s hearing to summon witnesses Hsu Sheng-chang (?? and Liu Chi-ling (劉啟玲), division chief and section chief respectively of the Science Park Administration, a government agency in charge of managing science parks around the country.
Hsu and Liu gave accounts of land deal negotiations between government officials and Quanta Display Inc, the company that planned at the time to use the land to build factories.
Former Hsinchu Science Park chief James Lee (李界木), along with the former president, is charged with taking kickbacks from a government land deal in Longtan (龍潭), Taoyuan County.
Prosecutors allege that in a meeting at the Presidential Office between the former president, Lee and other government officials, Chen Shui-bian proposed that the administration first rent the plot of land, then buy it and eventually include it as part of a science park.
Prosecutors allege the idea was for former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) to collect NT$400 million (US$12 million) in bribes as part of a deal between the government-run Hsinchu Science Park and Dayu Development Corp.
In related news, local media reported yesterday that the former president would soon face another wave of corruption charges as the Department of Investigation in Taipei City under the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau wraps up its probe into classified diplomatic affairs during Chen Shui-bian’s time in office.
Investigators suspect the former president failed to report remaining balances of between US$20,000 and US$80,000 in his expense account each time he returned from overseas, allegedly embezzling a total of US$300,000 in the eight years he was in office.
The former president has denied the accusations.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
The New Taipei City Government would assist relatives of those killed or injured in last month’s car-ramming incident in Sansia District (三峽) to secure compensation, Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said yesterday, two days after the driver died in a hospital. “The city government will do its best to help the relatives of the car crash incident seek compensation,” Hou said. The mayor also said that the city’s Legal Affairs, Education and Social Welfare departments have established a joint mechanism to “provide coordinated assistance” to victims and their families. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a car plowed into schoolchildren and their
RSS