Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) made his appearance at the Taiwan High Court yesterday to defend himself in a case in which he is accused of having embezzled state funds, as he assured reporters that that he is now in good health.
Lee appeared with his lawyer Wellington Koo (顧立雄). The cross-examination lasted about one hour and 20 minutes.
Speaking to reporters when he arrived, Lee confidently said he is not guilty and will be cleared of all charges against him.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
After the court appearance, reporters were concerned about the effects of the cold weather and asked Lee if he was fatigued.
Lee replied with a laugh: “My health is fine now. Although I am more than 90 years of age, my body is stronger than yours.”
Lee was asked about his lawyer Koo, who was standing nearby, regarding the Taipei mayoral race.
“He is an outstanding lawyer and a great person, but I am not sure if he will win. I hope people can support him,” Lee said.
Reporters then inquired about Lee’s opinion on Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), the other mayoral candidate of the pan-green camp.
“Ko is an amusing person. He is an individual with his own viewpoints,” he said.
The Special Investigation Division (SID) of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on June 30, 2011, indicted Lee and Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), accusing them of embezzling US$7.8 million in secret diplomatic funds to set up the Taiwan Research Institute, when Lee was serving his presidency. Lee was acquitted of the charges by the Taipei District Court in November last year, but the SID appealed to the Taiwan High Court.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods