The office of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday said the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) had agreed to allow Chen to be present when it opens sealed documents seized from his current and former office earlier this month.
Chen Sung-shan (陳淞山), manager of the former president’s office, said he would report the matter to the former president when he visits him on Friday. If Chen Shui-bian agrees, the SIP would request his presence when it opens the sealed documents on Oct. 6.
SIP spokesman Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達) said prosecutors had proposed opening five cases per day, a decision that was confirmed by Chen Sung-shan.
Chen Sung-shan said that though he was unsure whether the former president would be present the whole time, he was likely to be present on Wednesday next week.
Chen Sung-shan said he told SIP officials when he visited them yesterday that the former president had requested that he, as well as his lawyer and the press, be present when they open the 58 boxes.
Dozens of investigators raided the former president’s current and former offices on Linyi Street and Guanqian Road on Sept. 15 after allegations surfaced that he had illegally removed boxes of classified documents from the Presidential Office when he left office two years ago.
Chen Sung-shan yesterday demanded that the SIP return everything they took from the former president’s office in accordance with the law.
“The Sept. 15 raid and seizure of the documents are illegal and an act of political persecution,” he said. “The SIP also violated its legal duty as stipulated in Article 63-1 of the Organic Act of Court Organization (法院組織法).”
The SIP is responsible for handling cases dealing with accusations of corruption against the president, or “special major graft” cases, as well as white-collar crimes or crimes that may undermine social order.
Chen Sung-shan said the SIP had already retrieved more than 100 boxes of classified documents in August and September 2008, when they were investigating Chen Shui-bian for corruption.
The panel has also said that the 58 boxes retrieved on Sept. 15 are unlikely to contain documents that could “undermine social order,” he said.
He said the SIP seems to have acted on the “politically motivated instructions of their superiors,” who suspect the former president of “undermining social order” or committing “special major graft.”
“Isn’t it another clear example of political persecution?” Chen Sung-shan asked.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
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