The office of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday dismissed speculation that the release of his memoir on the 2004 attempt on his life was timed to win media exposure ahead of Saturday’s elections.
In a statement, the office said Chen’s memoir, entitled Nine Critical Days in History (歷史關鍵的九天), was meant to fight a smear campaign against the former president.
The office said that the memoir was published on the Neo Formosa Weekly Web site on Monday and the office did not receive written consent from Chen to release the memoir until last Friday.
On March 19, 2004, a bullet grazed Chen’s stomach and another hit vice president Annette Lu’s (呂秀蓮) knee as they were campaigning in Tainan. The pan-blue camp said the shooting was staged to win sympathy votes.
The Tainan Prosecutor’s Office closed the case in 2005, saying the shooting was the work of a lone gunman, Chen Yi-hsiung (陳義雄), who was found dead 10 days after the incident.
The office yesterday said the publication of the 12,000-word memoir had to do with groundless remarks by the Control Yuan concerning the election-eve assassination attempt. The government watchdog made public the results of its investigation into the case on Nov. 11.
The Control Yuan report said there were several flaws in the investigation into the shooting, and the questions it raised prompted the media to play up the report as if it meant the shooting incident was staged, the Presidential Office said.
The office said it suspected State Prosecutor-General Chen Tsung-ming (陳聰明) of violating investigative secrecy by revealing on Oct. 14 that prosecutors had uncovered “new problems that changed the situation.”
Although the former president is in custody, he will continue to protest his innocence, the office said: “Truth cannot be conquered and lies will not prevail.”
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