A senior investigator stunned lawmakers yesterday by saying that the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation had possessed important evidence in a libel case brought by Tseng Wen-hui (
Tseng won the case last year against Elmer Feng (馮滬祥) and Hsieh Chi-ta (謝啟大), both former New Party lawmakers, and Tai Chi (戴錡), a senior member of the party, after they accused her of taking dozens of suitcases stuffed with money to the US after the 2000 presidential election.
At a meeting of the legisla-ture's Judiciary Committee yesterday, Chou Wu-sha (周無奢), director of the bureau's third department, said that some suitcases had existed.
"I assure you that there were eight suitcases full of US dollars in cash," Chou said. "All of them were returned by the Bureau of Investigation to a US-based bank, where the money was supposed to be deposited, since the money was not involved in any criminal case and was no longer considered evidence."
Chou spoke in response to a question from PFP Legislator Pang Chien-kuo (
"Since the existence of the money is now confirmed, I would love to know more details about the money, now that the case is closed," Pang said.
However, Chou declined to answer any further questions, including who owned the money, how much money was in the suitcases, from which US bank the money came and when it was returned.
The committee asked bureau officials to come back with answers within a week.
Shortly after the 2000 presidential election, the three New Party politicians held press conferences claiming that Tseng had attempted to flee to New York with US$85 million in cash stuffed into 54 suitcases.
According to the trio's allegation, Tseng was planning to carry these suitcases to the US then deposit the money in her account there. However, these suitcases were allegedly returned by US Customs officials.
Chou, without commenting on the case, implied that the eight suitcases of money had been in the bureau's custody throughout the investigation process.
The libel case ended when the Taiwan High Court upheld Tseng's appeal on Dec. 12 last year after Feng, Hsieh and Tai were acquitted by the Taipei District Court in March.
The case originally hinged on a lack of evidence showing that she left the country at the time the three politicians alleged.
The high court sentenced Feng to four months in prison and Hsieh and Tai to three months each.
The defendants were also allowed to pay NT$300 a day in lieu of going to jail.
Feng paid the money last month, but Hsieh and Tai have neither paid the fine nor reported to summonses to begin their jail time.
Hsieh now lives in Beijing. Tai, who has US citizenship, lives in Los Angeles.
In a civil claim, the court also ordered the trio to broadcast for three consecutive days a statement that reads: "Our accusation against Tseng, that she left Taiwan for the US with suitcases laden with cash after the 2000 presidential election, was not true and we would like to apologize to Tseng."
They have so far not complied with the court order.
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