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Former president's mother-in-law testifies in court

Wu Wang Hsia, center, the mother-in-law of former president Chen Shui-bian, arrives at the Taipei District Court yesterday to testify in the former president’s money-laundering case. PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) mother-in-law, Wu Wang Hsia (吳王霞), appeared at the Taipei District Court yesterday to testify in the former first family’s money laundering case.

The 83-year-old said she did not remember most of the events she was asked about.

Wu Wang Hsia, the mother of former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), answered “I forget” to many of the questions asked by the judge and prosecutors.

She told Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓): “When you get to my age, you will know [why I forget].”

Wu Wang Hsia and the former president did not speak to each other in court and barely made eye contact. Wu Wang Hsia kept her eyes on her son-in-law as she took her seat in the courtroom yesterday afternoon, but Chen did not acknowledge her until later, when he nodded to her.

When prosecutors asked Wu Wang Hsia whether she lent her Changhwa Bank account to her daughter Wu Shu-jen for her daughter’s use, Wu Wang Hsia answered: “Whoever is the name on the bank account, that is the person who uses the account.”

She denied lending the bank account to her daughter and said she did not care too much about money.

When asked about the former president, Wu Wang Hsia said Chen is “well-behaved” and a “country kid” who is not too interested in money. She said because her daughter is more aggressive, Chen usually complied with her on most matters.

At previous hearings, when prosecutors requested that the court call Wu Wang Hsia to testify, Chen had pleaded with the judge not to call her as a witness. Chen had told the court his mother-in-law was very old and starting to show signs of dementia, so she would not be able to offer any useful information to the court.

However, Tsai, who has the authority to decide whether to call certain witnesses, rejected Chen’s pleas and called Wu Wang Hsia.

Aside from Wu Wang Hsia, Tsai also summoned former presidential adviser Wu Li-pei (吳澧培) as a witness yesterday.

Asked about certain transfers of money, Wu Li-pei said the former president told him in February last year as he was about to leave office that he hoped to continue to improve Taiwan’s foreign relations.

He said Chen was told by American Institute in Taiwan director Stephen Young that after he ended his presidency, he would not encounter any problems leaving the country to go to the US.

Wu Li-pei said Chen told him he had a fund of US$2 million from donations and would wire the money to his four accounts in the US.

The money was transferred into four bank accounts to avoid arousing suspicion because it was part of a classified foreign diplomacy project, he said.

The former adviser said he did not think the transfers were part of any money-laundering scheme, because he would never have thought Chen would be involved in such behavior and believed even if he wanted to launder money, such transfers would be have been done by people very close to the former president and that he was not one of them.

Meanwhile, appearing at the district court in a separate trial, former minister of Justice Morley Shih (施茂林) denied ever discussing the former president’s case during a secret meeting at the Presidential Office.

When former Presidential Office director Lin Teh-hsun (林德訓) was called to the stand, he told the court that in a meeting at the Presidential Office, senior officials in the judicial system had instructed that the presidential “state affairs fund” be classified.

Lin did not identify who the officials were.

When approached by reporters, Shih, who had been in office during the Chen administration, denied any knowledge of the meeting.

“I know nothing [about any meeting], because I wasn’t there,” Shih said.
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