Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday said it was premature to request a presidential pardon for former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), but hoped the next trial would correct the wrongs made by the Taipei District Court.
Lu said presidential pardons are applicable only after a sentence has been finalized by the Supreme Court, citing the Pardon Act (赦免法).
“If many people are calling for a presidential pardon, that means many people think the court ruling is questionable,” she told a press conference. “If there is no justice in the [trial] process, there won’t be any real justice in the end.”
Lu urged the court to consider the legislation governing the state affairs fund and other government figures’ special funds.
The court should not allow anyone to “interpret the matter politically,” she said, because only the former president, his accountants and his auditors know how the president’s discretionary fund was used.
She called on Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien (王建煊) to investigate prosecutors and judges involved in Chen’s trial and in probes of other local chiefs to ensure they had not processed the cases based on political bias.
Calling the court’s ruling against Chen on Friday, which was Sept. 11, “Taiwan’s version of 9-11,” Lu said the legal proceedings had been “seriously flawed.”
She said she wanted to know whether politics had influenced the judiciary; whether the Special Investigation Panel had leaked information to the media; whether raids and questioning by prosecutors and Chen’s detention since December had violated any procedures; whether the court had violated the Constitution or the law; and how to ensure the judiciary is unbiased.
Lu, who said she felt “distressed” over the matter, urged Chen and his family to apologize to the public again, especially to his long-term supporters.
Declaring the ruling “invalid,” “unfair” and “unprofessional,” Chen’s former attorney Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍) at the same press conference urged the High Court to annul the ruling.
There was no proof Chen is guilty, he said, adding that he was optimistic that Chen would eventually be acquitted.
Liu Shing-i (劉幸義), a law professor at National Taipei University, urged the Council of Grand Justices to reach a decision on the constitutionality of the change of judges in the middle of Chen’s trial.
He called for the appeal hearings to be postponed until the council hands down its ruling.
Meanwhile, former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said on Saturday night that the ruling was unfair and had only served to let the public vent its anger.
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