Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday filed a lawsuit against four prosecutors of the Special Investigation Panel (SIP), accusing them of violating judicial neutrality while handling his pre-trial hearing.
Chen accused the four prosecutors — Chu Chao-liang (朱朝亮), Wu Wen-chung (吳文忠), Lee Hai-lung (李海龍) and Yueh Fang-ju (越方如) — of abusing their authority while questioning defendants and witnesses and of extortion, solicitation and forgery.
“The SIP prosecutors abused their right to arrest Chen despite his innocence and to negotiate with Jeffrey Koo Jr [辜仲諒] in Japan although he is guilty,” Chen’s office said in a written statement.
Chen’s office said that prosecutors had detained him by soliciting the help of the former Chinatrust Financial Holding Co vice chairman after negotiations that allowed Koo to return to Taiwan a free man despite being a fugitive.
The office accused prosecutors of colluding with Koo to have him lie in his oral statement and later sign a transcription of his oral responses that deviated from what he had said.
Chen’s office called on the prosecutors to come clean over whether they had struck a deal with Koo to get him to testify.
The prosecutors should also explain their claim that former premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) and former Kaohsiung City mayor and vice premier Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) had not received money from Chen, even though the two had acknowledged accepting donations from him, Chen’s office said.
The statement accused the prosecutors of violating procedures in questioning defendants and witnesses with the goal of detaining Chen. The four prosecutors had damaged the judiciary’s credibility and should be punished, it said.
Chen has admitted that his wife wired US$20 million abroad from his campaign funds, but says she did so without his knowledge.
SIP spokesman Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) yesterday said the former president was free to file a lawsuit.
“I will not comment on this,” he said.
Meanwhile, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) confirmed yesterday that Taipei had sought judicial help from Washington in probing Chen Shui-bian and his family.
“Taiwan’s law enforcement authorities have been in touch with US counterparts concerning tracking former president Chen’s funds in the United States,” AIT spokesman Thomas Hodges told AFP.
The US and Taiwan signed a Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement in 2002 that “establishes a mechanism by which US and Taiwan law enforcement authorities may cooperate in obtaining and sharing relevant information and evidence,” he said.
Hodges declined to provide details. Chen Yun-nan also declined to comment.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP AND JIMMY CHUANG
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS