President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) filed criminal and civil suits against media personality Clara Chou (周玉蔻) via an appointed lawyer yesterday, alleging that she slandered him by claiming that the president received an off-the-books political donation from Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團).
Outside the Taipei District Court where the lawsuits were filed, lawyer Hung Wen-chun (洪文浚) said that in the civil suit, Ma is seeking NT$10 million (US$314,800) in compensation and an apology from Chou published in each of the nation’s four major newspapers.
The criminal suit seeks to bring charges of defamation against Chou for circulating the allegations, he added.
Photo: Chang Hsiao-ti, Taipei Times
Chou first made the accusation last week, saying that Ma received a NT$200 million under-the-table donation from Ting Hsin, a food conglomerate owned by the Wei (魏) family that has been embroiled in several major food scandals over tainted oil over the past year.
Ma brought the matter to court yesterday after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Benny Hu (胡定吾) — a friend of Ma’s and a member of Taipei Financial Center Corp’s (台北金融大樓) board, which operates Taipei 101 — both took legal action against Chou over the allegations.
Hung said that despite the Presidential Office’s repeated attempts to resolve the situation, Chou has continued to reiterate the accusations and make new ones, so the president “has no other choice” but to sue her.
If summoned by the court to speak on the case, Ma will act in accordance with the law, Hung said.
Hung added that if awarded the NT$10 million in compensation, Ma would donate the money to the Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation, an organization that works with former “comfort women,” as well as providing assistance to abused women and victims of human trafficking and the sex trade.
In the wake of the explosive allegations, the KMT yesterday expelled Chou, citing her frequent verbal attacks on the party.
The KMT’s Central Discipline Committee reached a unanimous decision on Chou’s party membership, saying that her comments over recent months have “obviously damaged the KMT’s reputation and interests.”
The expulsion will be referred to the party’s Central Standing Committee for approval.
Separately yesterday, KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) defended Ma’s integrity and questioned the veracity of Chou’s claim that Ma accepted an off-the-books donation.
On a radio show aired yesterday, Tsai said he had never heard of a NT$200 million off-the-books donation made by Ting Hsin in business circles, as Chou claims, adding that he “has no qualms about affirming Ma’s integrity.”
The remarks came as something of a surprise since, before airing, the program’s producers had sent a notification to the press on Monday saying that the forthcoming interview with Tsai would be “a revelation of the KMT’s core problem and its relationship with Ting Hsin.”
It was thought that Tsai would reveal secret, unfavorable information about the KMT, following his disclosure two weeks ago that the KMT had asked then-KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) to go easy on Ting Hsin.
Later on Monday, it was reported that the interview had been canceled. Then it was reported that the show would go on, but once aired, the content cast the KMT in a more positive light than expected.
Tsai said Ting Hsin has always been “stingy” about donations, citing the newly built Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) office in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) as an example.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀) and Ruentex Group (潤泰集團) chairman Samuel Yin (尹衍樑) made donations of NT$40 million and NT$45 million respectively at then-SEF chairman Chiang Pin-kung’s (江丙坤) request.
“Neither the Wei family nor Ting Hsin donated a cent after two, not one, inquiries were made,” Tsai said. “I don’t believe that Ting Hsin, being as stingy as that, would donate NT$200 million to Ma.”
Additional reporting by CNA
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