Prosecutors have decided not to appeal last week’s Taiwan High Court verdict that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was not guilty of corruption and money laundering between 1998 and 2000 when he was in office.
The Special Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said that it will not file an appeal because the case now hinges on the Fair and Speedy Criminal Trials Act (刑事妥速審判法).
The law stipulates that any not-guilty verdict at both the district court and High Court levels can only be appealed by prosecutors if the law or order applied in the judgement is unconstitutional; the judgement violates an interpretation by the Judicial Yuan; or the judgement contradicts precedent.
Lee, 91, and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) treasurer Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英), a long-time Lee confidant, were indicted in June 2011 on charges of corruption, embezzlement and money laundering in connection with a secret National Security Bureau fund.
The prosecutors alleged that US$7.79 million was diverted from the fund in the late 1990s to finance the Taiwan Research Institute, a research organization established by Liu in 1994.
The High Court’s ruling on Wednesday last week upheld Liu’s guilty verdict for embezzling public funds and extended his prison sentence from two years and eight months to three years. It also ordered him to return US$150,000.
Liu’s case can be appealed.
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