Former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), who along with her family members is standing trial on corruption charges, yesterday hit back at claims by prosecutors that the cash available in her family’s bank accounts totaled about NT$10 million (US$307,600).
Wu issued a statement after prosecutors last week defended their recent decision to freeze the domestic assets — totaling about NT$500 million — of some of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) family members in a bid to have them pay back illegal profits if they are found guilty.
In her hand-written statement, Wu said: “The Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] is proposing to deprive Chen of all privileges. Was there any better way than ‘pushing the Chen family into a corner’ to explain why prosecutors had confiscated their lawful property?”
Wu said that the funds in the accounts of Chen Shui-bian, their son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) and herself to which they have immediate access totals about NT$1.23 million, which was not enough to pay their living expenses.
Prosecutors have said that the four Chen family members have deposits of NT$5.35 million in banks and that Chen recently received life insurance benefits of NT$3.8 million along with Chen’s monthly income of NT$270,000 from his retirement fund, stipend as a former president and his former work as an attorney.
Wu said the prosecutors’ claims were far from the truth.
The wheelchair-bound Wu said that her family can’t afford to pay their living expenses, her medical and nursing expenses, mortgage and attorney fees, with the NT$1.2 million left to them.
She said she needs about NT$200,000 a month to cover her medical and nursing expenses, adding that the NT$3.8 million life insurance money would pay for legal fees.
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