The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday filed a lawsuit against Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) for his comments accusing DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of corruption.
The party said it filed the lawsuit because Wu, who is on leave to concentrate on his campaign as President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) running mate, had violated the Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act (總統副總統選舉罷免法) by spreading a rumor or false statement for the purpose of getting a candidate elected or impeding a candidate’s election chances.
At a campaign rally on Friday, Wu accused Tsai of corruption in the so-called “Yu Chang case” during her time as vice premier in 2007, when she approved separate government investments of NT$875 million (US$28.8 million) and US$20 million — about NT$1.4 billion in total — for the bio-technology start-up before leaving office and serving as Yu Chang’s chairperson.
Photo: CNA
The National Development Fund’s (NDF) investment in Yu Chang was a lot less than NT$1.4 billion and Wu’s comments were an “obvious smear,” DPP spokesman Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said.
The NDF deposited its initial investment of NT$264 million in Yu Chang,now known as TaiMed Biologics Co, and approved the second phase investment of NT$875 million in March 2008, but the second deposit never went through after the change in government in May 2008, he said.
“No matter how you calculate it, the sum would not be NT$1.4 billion,” Chuang said.
Photo: Lin Chun-hung, Taipei Times
Wu failed to get the time right either because the NT$875 million investment was approved by the NDF in March 2008, 10 months after Tsai left office in May 2007, DPP lawyer Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said.
Huang said it was strange that Wu’s comments came after his wife, Tsai Ling-yi (蔡令怡), had apologized for citing incorrect information at a KMT rally on Dec. 11 to accuse Tsai Ing-wen of transferring NT$1.1 billion in public funds to the accounts of her family’s businesses.
Including Wu, the DPP has now filed lawsuits against eight KMT politicians or political analysts over the Yu Chang case since Wednesday as the party insisted Tsai was not involved in any wrongdoing.
The DPP sued Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) over allegedly forging documents that were used to smear Tsai and KMT legislators Chiu Yi (邱毅), Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑), Lin Yi-shih (林益世) and Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), as well as political commentator Clara Chou (周玉蔻), for spreading rumors.
At a separate setting yesterday, DPP legislative candidate Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄) filed a lawsuit with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office against Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), alleging recent remarks by Gou may have violated election laws.
Juan, who represents the party in Taipei’s Wenshan District (文山), said Gou had said he supported Ma’s election and added that he planned to hire charter flights to return his staff from China to vote.
Juan said such measures could constitute vote buying.
Gou also joined a campaign rally for independent legislative candidate Lin Pin-kuan (林炳坤) on Penghu and told Lin that if he was elected, he would invest in a film company to make a movie in Penghu and that he would also provide funds so National Penghu University of Science and Technology could send people to attend the world energy investment competition, Juan said.
Those remarks also might have broken vote-buying regulations, Juan said.
Additional reporting by Rich Chang
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