Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and his wife were convicted and sentenced to more years in prison yesterday on graft charges.
Chen was convicted of accepting NT$200 million (US$6.9 million) in bribes in connection with Yuanta Financial Holding Co’s (元大金控) merger with Fuhwa Financial Holding Co (復華金控) and sentenced to another 10 years, the Supreme Court said in a statement.
Chen, 62, is currently serving an 18-and-a-half year term for corruption and money-laundering.
By law, an individual can serve only a maximum of 20 years in prison unless a life term is imposed. A court will announce early next year how much Chen’s jail term will be extended by yesterday’s ruling.
Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division spokesman Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達) said one result of the ruling is that the government will now be able to ask the Swiss government to return the money which Chen’s family deposited in a Swiss bank.
The court said the money was paid to Chen as a bribe by Yuanta. The sum has been frozen by Swiss authorities since the scandal broke in 2008.
Chen’s wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), already sentenced to 19 years and two months on four convictions for charges including corruption and perjury, was sentenced to eight years in jail.
Chen’s defense attorney, Shih Yi-lin (石宜琳), said the Supreme Court still favored the argument that “the president played an influential role.”
“It is a very controversial stance in the legal field. It is also an expanded interpretation on the legal power and authority of the presidency,” Shih said, adding that he would consider whether to appeal the ruling.
Chen Shui-bian’s office issued a statement questioning whether the ruling was the result of “political interference” that aimed to disgrace Chen by rendering a verdict that was unconstitutional.
Saying the money came from political donations, Chen and Wu’ son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), accused the judiciary of being pliable when it came to dealing with his father.
Chen Shui-bian was detained in November 2008 on corruption charges stemming from his two terms as president between 2000 and 2008. He and members of his family have been accused of laundering millions of US dollars by sending political donations and secret diplomatic funds abroad, and taking kickbacks on government contracts.
Chen Shui-bian insists that the legal actions against him are a vendetta carried out by President Ma Ying-jeou’s administration (馬英九) in retaliation for promoting Taiwan’s independence from China during his years in office. The government rejects the allegations.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang
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
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
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