Prosecutors yesterday summoned former Presidential Office director Lin Teh-hsun (林德訓) for questioning on suspicion of perjury — an accusation that Lin denied.
Taipei District Court judges asked prosecutors in September to look into whether Lin had committed perjury.
The court convicted Lin and former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成), both of whom were aides to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), of helping the former first couple embezzle money. They were sentenced to 16 years and 20 years respectively and stripped of their civil rights for eight years and 10 years respectively.
The former aide is suspected of asking the former first family’s bookkeeper, Chen Chen-hui (陳鎮慧), and a friend of former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) to lie to prosecutors about details related to the presidential “state affairs fund.”
Prosecutors said they found contradictions when they tried to corroborate statements from the witnesses. However, Lin denied the accusations during questioning yesterday.
Lin and Ma were among the codefendants in the former president’s trial who received the heaviest sentences because, the court said, they committed their crimes as civil servants and refuse to confess to their crimes.
Taipei District prosecutors said they may soon question the former president at Taipei Detention Center, where he is being detained, on suspicions that he participated in coordinating perjury among witnesses.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard