Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday filed a defamation lawsuit against Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) over their comments related to the “319 shooting.”
Chen submitted the paperwork for the lawsuit at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office accompanied by his supporters, lawyers, Taiwan Action Party Alliance chairman Yang Chyi-wen (楊其文) and alliance members.
“If I do not sue them, I will not rest in peace when I die,” Chen said, adding that Ma and other Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) figures continue to “perpetuate the lie that the 319 shooting was staged and that I played along with the deception… I am fed up with their slander.”
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The 319 shooting refers to an assassination attempt against Chen and then-vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on March 19, 2004. Chen sustained a flesh wound to the abdomen in the attack. He won re-election the next day.
Han, the KMT’s candidate in the presidential election next Saturday, brought up the topic in Sunday’s televised presidential debate, accusing Democratic Progressive Party stalwart Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), who was then Presidential Office secretary-general, of staging the incident.
“Ma and then-KMT spokeswoman Sisy Chen (陳文茜) were the first to say that the shooting was staged and that I played along, faking a wound,” Chen Shui-bian said. “Now Han is running for president and he has claimed that it was staged.”
“These people continue to revile me during campaigning and I am fed up with it. If I do not sue them, there will be no justice,” he said.
“There are official investigation reports on the incident, including one made during Ma’s eight-year presidency, that state the facts,” he added.
Earlier yesterday, Chen Shui-bian attended a media event in Taipei where alliance officials and candidates presented their policies and canvassed for votes.
By appearing at the event, Chen Shui-bian risked breaking a condition of his medical parole that he not engage in political activity.
He was indicted on corruption charges in 2008 and found guilty in 2010, with the final ruling sentencing him to a 17-and-a-half-year prison term.
In January 2015, he was granted parole on medical grounds.
Chen Shui-bian has maintained that he is a victim of political persecution by Ma and the KMT.
Asked if the government might return him to prison, Chen Shui-bian said: “I am not scared”
“I do not even fear the Chinese Communist Party… Now I do not fear death, so what is there to fear?” he said.
“If President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) wins re-election, does she want me to go back to prison? A-bian (阿扁) is here waiting for her,” he added, referring to himself by his nickname.
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