Though James Soong (
"As a prominent political leader, Soong should take the lead in seeking to be acquitted in a court of law to prove his innocence through open debate," said Yen Chueh-an (
Yen said if Soong were found innocent of all charges leveled against him, it would further prove the PFP leader's claim that he had been politically persecuted.
But the professor also conceded that the case's political implications outweighed the need to get to the bottom of the financial scandal.
"Neither indictment nor a re-investigation means that Soong is guilty," he said. Yen believes the case will inevitably take on a political aspect, regardless of the outcome of the new investigation.
"A lot of people said that if it hadn't been for the Chung Hsing Bills Finance case, I would have been elected president," Soong said yesterday. He added that the re-opened case was also an infringement of his human rights.
Soong said that "the judiciary, [after it had decided not to indict me on Jan. 20] has proved that I am innocent, but it does not guarantee me that justice has been served."
PFP lawmaker Hwang Yih-jiau (
Though Hwang didn't clearly say which KMT faction he was referring to, he most likely meant former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), as KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) dropped the idea of seeking a reconsideration of the case on Feb 8.
A close aide of Lee, Huang Hui-chan (
PFP lawmaker Chiu Chuang-liang (
Chiu also said that lawyer Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) was the key source of new evidence that was used to re-open the case and provided to KMT lawyer Chuang Po-lin (莊柏林), who pursued the allegations against Soong on the party's behalf. But Chiu said Hsu's evidence was actually nothing new.
In response, Hsu said yesterday that "the move had nothing to do with Hsieh," and whether the evidence and legal opinions he proposed were new or not should be left for the prosecutor to decide independently.
Despite all of these denials, Yen said that the re-opened case could actually be utilized as a political tool to negotiate cooperation between the KMT and PFP.
"The KMT's advantage lies in its financial and organizational abilities, while Soong has the upper hand in leadership. The KMT can therefore use the case as a bargaining chip to make a deal that favors it in terms of electoral cooperation," Yen said.
Contradicting Yen's view, KMT lawmaker Apollo Chen (
"As long as it is repeatedly mentioned, its impact in reducing the likelihood of cooperation between the KMT and PFP will be immeasurable," Chen said.
Chen, moreover, suspected that the PFP was behind the reopening of the case, trying to gain public sympathy for Soong.
The Judicial Reform Foundation's (
"To avoid political complications, the case should be dealt with before the country goes to the polls," Wang said.
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