The Taiwan High Court yesterday ordered the Taipei District Court to hold a hearing on a request by prosecutors that property owned by the family of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in the country be seized.
Taipei District Court Judge Chou Chan-chun (周占春) on Nov. 5 acquitted Chen and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), of money laundering and bribery charges. Chen and Wu had been accused of receiving bribes from bankers in exchange for help facilitating bank mergers.
In the same ruling, Chou also turned down a request by prosecutors from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Panel (SIP) to seize the Chen family’s properties in Taiwan — whose total value is estimated at NT$500 million (US$16.4 million) — claiming that the properties had been purchased using illegally obtained money.
In his ruling, Chou said that as Chen and his family were not guilty, the properties could not be considered to have been acquired with “dirty money.”
The SIP had requested the seizure of the Chen family’s three houses in Taipei, Wu’s current residence in Kaohsiung, Chen’s land in Tainan County, as well as the bank deposits of Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), his daughter-in-law, Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚), Wu’s elder brother, Wu Ching-mao (吳景茂), and other properties.
The SIP subsequently appealed Chou’s decision with the Taiwan High Court.
In its ruling, the Taiwan High Court said it would give the case a second hearing and that, as it remained unclear whether the Chen family had laundered money and received bribes, it was necessary that the property owned by the Chen family be seized during the legal process.
The Taipei District Court said it would soon hold a hearing to decide on the request.
The SIP last December charged the defendants, alleging that the bankers bribed the former president into pressuring the Ministry of Finance to approve mergers during the second phase of banking reform by Chen Shui-bian’s administration aimed at encouraging consolidation in the banking sector.
In his ruling, Chou had said that according to the Anti-Corruption Act (貪汙治罪條例), a public official violates the law by taking bribes in exchange for decisions or policies in favor of the bribers, but according to the Constitution, the president’s duties do not include policies on bank mergers, so Chen Shui-bian could not have received money from banks to help their merger proposals.
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