Shilin prosecutors yesterday said accusations that former minister of foreign affairs Chen Chien-jen (程建人) had sexually assaulted a woman were baseless and closed the case without an indictment on Friday.
Prosecutors said the woman had provided toilet paper to prosecutors, alleging it contained Chen’s semen. However, tests did not reveal the presence of semen in the samples, prosecutors said, adding that there was no evidence from Chen’s car that he had raped her in it on several occasions, as she had alleged.
Prosecutors said there was no evidence that Chen had ever sexually assaulted her.
“The result was certain because the accusation is a total fabrication,” Chen said after the prosecutors’ announcement.
“I do not know what her intentions were, but my life was messed up as a result of her actions,” he said.
The accuser and Chen live in the same apartment complex in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Sijhih District (汐止).
The 54-year-old woman went to the police on April 18 and told them that she and Chen had dinner on April 7 at a Yoshinoya restaurant in Sijhih. She alleged that after the dinner, Chen invited her to his residence, where he sexually assaulted her.
The woman said Chen first assaulted her in August last year and that he had used nude photographs of her to blackmail her and had assaulted her in his residence and in his vehicle on other occasions.
In his defense, Chen said the woman never entered his residence and that he never went to her home.
He said he and his family members had been seriously harassed by the woman.
The 73-year-old retired career diplomat served as foreign minister in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
He was later appointed to serve as the country’s representative to the US.
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