The Taiwan High Court yesterday summoned several witnesses and defendants to testify in the embezzlement case against former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) was absent from the court because of ill health.
The witnesses and defendants summoned to court yesterday included former presidential aide Liu Dao (劉導), former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成), the former first family’s bookkeeper Chen Chen-hui (陳鎮慧), the former president’s ex-housekeeper Lo Shih Li-yun (羅施麗雲) and others.
Lo, who worked for Chen Shui-bian and his wife for more than a decade, yesterday testified that she received extra compensation from the former first family every year between 2000 and 2008. However, she told the court she did not know whether or not the money came from the presidential “state affairs fund.”
PHOTO: CNA
On Jan. 5, Taipei District prosecutors charged Lo with lying to prosecutors about the first family’s alleged embezzlement of public funds. Prosecutors suspect Lo is trying to protect the former first family by withholding information that could incriminate her former employers.
Other witnesses also provided similar testimony, saying they received bonuses from the former president, but did not know whether the money came from the presidential fund.
The former president’s alleged embezzlement of the presidential “state affairs fund” is currently in its second round of legal proceedings at the Taiwan High Court. In the first verdict handed down by the Taipei District Court, judges found Chen and his wife guilty of embezzlement and taking bribes totaling NT$800 million (US$25 million), some of which was laundered overseas through Swiss bank accounts and paper companies.
He and other defendants have also been charged with the embezzlement of government funds through secret diplomatic projects, a case that is currently under review at the Taipei District Court.
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
The US’ joint strikes with Israel on Iran dismantled a key pillar of China’s regional strategy, removing an important piece in Beijing’s potential Taiwan Strait scenario, said Zineb Riboua, a senior researcher at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Middle East Peace and Security. In an article titled: “The Iran Question Is All About China,” Riboua said that understanding the Iran issue in the context of China’s “grand strategy” is essential to fully grasp the complexity of the situation. Beijing has spent billions of dollars over the years turning Iran into a “structural strategic asset,” diverting US military resources in the
RSS