The Taipei District Court will decide tomorrow whether to detain former China Development Hol-ding Corp chairman Liu Tai-ying (
Tomorrow's hearing follows a successful appeal by Taipei Chief Prosecutor Hsueh Wei-ping (薛維平) to the Taiwan High Court. The Taipei District Court, which had previously decided to release Liu without bail, has been ordered to hear the case again and reconsider Hsueh's detention request.
"The court affirmed the district court's decision that Liu is not likely to exchange information with other witnesses or suspects in the case. However, Liu's alleged offences are serious crimes which may result in a sentence of more than five years. For this reason it is definitely necessary to detain Liu, but the district court judges did not explain why they decided to let him go. As a result, we requested the district court to rehear prosecutors' detention request," the Taiwan High Court said in its verdict.
Liu could be sentenced to between five and seven years in prison if he is convicted.
It is possible that Liu will be detained immediately after tomorrow's hearing. Even if he is not detained, he will have to report to the district court every day, because the court has scheduled hearings throughout next week in an attempt to make as much progress as possible regarding the scandal.
Liu, who is president of the Taiwan Research Institute, was first interrogated by special agents from the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation on Aug. 15. Special agents transferred him to the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office for another interrogation by Hsueh on the same day.
Hsueh filed a detention request, which was turned down by the district court. The court decided to release Liu without bail on Aug. 16. Hsueh immediately filed an appeal to the High Court which was granted on Sept. 23.
The chief prosecutor is investigating the disappearance in 1994 of US$4.5 million from a secret fund of US$10.58 million to secure Tai-wan's diplomatic relationship with South Africa. According to his investigation, the National Security Bureau (NSB) paid the amount to South Africa on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in May 1994.
On April 4, 1999, the ministry returned a total of US$10.7 million, including interest, to the NSB. The bureau's former chief accountant, Hsu Ping-chiang (徐炳強), allegedly asked the former chief cashier Liu Kuan-chun (劉冠軍) to deposit US$7.5 million in the Taiwan Research Institute's bank account.
Liu Kuan-chun is suspected of embezzling more than NT$192 million from the total amount. According to the Bureau of Investigation, he left Taiwan on Sept. 3, 2000 and went to Shanghai. He surfaced in Bangkok in January last year and from there went to North America. Sources said that he is now in Canada.
Liu Tai-ying allegedly wired the money to Ruentex Corp Chairman Yin Yen-liang's (尹衍樑) bank accounts in the US and Singapore. Yin allegedly wired the money to one of Ruentex Corp's bank accounts in Taiwan, after which he "donated" US$3 million of it to the Taiwan Research Institute. Hsu has been detained since July 18.
Prosecutors have also interrogated Yin, former minister of foreign affairs Jason Hu (
According to a statement by Hsu, he acted on orders from former NSB secretary-general Yin Tsung-wen (
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