Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday maintained his silence during his trial for corruption, but expressed his anger through a spokesperson about his son and daughter being named as defendants in a related perjury case.
Yesterday was the first day of a week of consecutive full-day court appearances for the former president. Hundreds of his supporters again gathered outside the Taipei District Court to show their dissatisfaction with the judicial process.
They were clad in green shirts and carried signs with slogans calling for the release of the former president and protesting the unfair judicial system.
Among them was Chen’s secretary Chiang Chih-ming (江志銘). Asked for comment outside the courthouse, he said that the former president was extremely distressed after events on Monday, when his son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), daughter Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤) and son-in-law Chao Chien-ming (趙建銘) were questioned by prosecutors on perjury charges.
“[The former president] is very angry that the case now involves his whole family, and with no mercy,” Chiang said. “[He] thinks that the cases involving [people in his] generation should not involve the second generation [his children].”
“He thinks it’s a political witch hunt that is directed at his entire family and no one will be left alone,” he said.
The three, along with former chairman of the Taipei Financial Center Co, Diana Chen (陳敏薰), were charged with perjury on June 3. The three on Monday admitted to giving false testimony regarding Chen Shui-bian’s money laundering and embezzlement charges.
Presiding Judge Tsai Shou-hsun (蔡守訓) had scheduled yesterday’s hearing to summon witnesses Hsu Sheng-chang (?? and Liu Chi-ling (劉啟玲), division chief and section chief respectively of the Science Park Administration, a government agency in charge of managing science parks around the country.
Hsu and Liu gave accounts of land deal negotiations between government officials and Quanta Display Inc, the company that planned at the time to use the land to build factories.
Former Hsinchu Science Park chief James Lee (李界木), along with the former president, is charged with taking kickbacks from a government land deal in Longtan (龍潭), Taoyuan County.
Prosecutors allege that in a meeting at the Presidential Office between the former president, Lee and other government officials, Chen Shui-bian proposed that the administration first rent the plot of land, then buy it and eventually include it as part of a science park.
Prosecutors allege the idea was for former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) to collect NT$400 million (US$12 million) in bribes as part of a deal between the government-run Hsinchu Science Park and Dayu Development Corp.
In related news, local media reported yesterday that the former president would soon face another wave of corruption charges as the Department of Investigation in Taipei City under the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau wraps up its probe into classified diplomatic affairs during Chen Shui-bian’s time in office.
Investigators suspect the former president failed to report remaining balances of between US$20,000 and US$80,000 in his expense account each time he returned from overseas, allegedly embezzling a total of US$300,000 in the eight years he was in office.
The former president has denied the accusations.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about