The Presidential Office yesterday remained mum about whether President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) plans to pardon former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) after a Chinese-language magazine reported that she would do so before her term ends on May 20.
“The Presidential Office’s current position is still to ensure that former president Chen receives proper healthcare, and other pertinent matters would be handled based on the relevant regulations,” office spokeswoman Olivia Lin (林聿禪) said.
Mirror Weekly magazine yesterday published a cover story in which it detailed the Tsai administration’s deliberations on pardoning Chen, who was convicted of corruption for four bribery and money-laundering scandals committed while in office and was sentenced to a combined 20 years in prison.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
Chen was released on medical parole in 2015 after having served six years.
Despite being instructed by Taichung Prison not to give political speeches, comment on political issues, endorse political candidates or attend political events, Chen was reported to have breached each of the four conditions by attending a dinner hosted by Taiwan Brain Trust, appearing at his son’s campaign rally when he ran for Kaohsiung city councilor, accepting a request for an interview from Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun and commenting on political issues on Facebook.
The prison’s continuous extension of Chen’s medical parole — 38 times — has damaged the dignity of the judicial system and divided the nation, the story said, adding that as such, Tsai has decided to pardon the former president and the office is following legal procedures to do so.
To reduce repercussions that might arise from the pardon, the government would ask the judicial system to confiscate the proceeds Chen and his family gained from their criminal activities — NT$1.1 billion (US$33.98 million), the story said.
The pardon would not extend to suspended criminal trials in which the former president and his former staff at the Presidential Office have yet to be convicted, it said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said that the caucus has no further information on the potential pardon, adding that it respects the authority of the president.
“For the DPP caucus, the most important thing before May 20 is to hope for a smooth transition between the old and new Cabinets, and good exchanges between the executive and legislative branches,” Wu said. “This would ensure that good policies would be proposed and implemented at the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan.”
The Ministry of Justice said that it has yet to receive orders from the Presidential Office or Executive Yuan to begin considering the possibility of pardoning Chen.
However, the ministry emphasized that a pardon is a privilege that the president is entitled to exercise toward convicted criminals, who would then be exempt from serving prison sentences.
The record of conviction would not be expunged despite the presidential pardon, it said.
Prosecutors can petition a judge to confiscate the entire criminal proceeds gained by Chen and his family under a new system that the ministry has implemented since 2016 in accordance with the Criminal Code, the ministry said, adding that the proceeds would not be returned even if Chen were to be pardoned.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said that Chen has been convicted in some cases, but he also has pending lawsuits.
“If the presidential pardon were to apply to all these cases, people would not know the truth,” Hung said.
“We have no idea why President Tsai would choose to pardon Chen before her second term ends, rather than during her tenure as president. However, people need to know the truth. Chen should only be pardoned when he admits he is guilty of all the crimes he committed and all the lawsuits against him are finalized,” he said.
KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said that Tsai should tell the public which crimes she plans to pardon.
“Many lawsuits against Chen are suspended because he has been on medical parole for an unspecified duration. Tsai should explain whether these unsettled lawsuits should resume after the presidential pardon,” Lo said.
Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that Tsai should explain why she needs to pardon Chen, rather than leaking the information to news media to influence public opinion.
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