Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) lawyer said yesterday a Swiss bank had remitted US$1 million from the Chen family’s frozen NT$700 million (US$21 million) in Swiss bank accounts to a Taiwanese prosecutors’ account.
The move was made as part of efforts to secure Chen’s release on bail, one of Chen’s attorneys, Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍), said yesterday.
Cheng said he received a phone call from Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), on Friday telling him that the Zurich-based RBS Coutts Bank had remitted US$1 million to a bank account designated by the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) of the Supreme Prosecutors Office.
Cheng said he visited the former president at the Taipei Detention Center as soon as he heard the news.
“He was pretty happy to hear about the money remittance,” Cheng said.
Chen Shui-bian was first detained at the Taipei Detention Center on Nov. 12, 2008, and released on Dec. 13, 2008, following his indictment. He was detained again on Dec. 30, 2008, after the Taipei District Court approved a request by prosecutors to take him back into custody. He has remained in detention since.
Cheng said he submitted an urgent appeal to the High Court on Friday following the visit to the former president, asking the court to rescind the ruling to keep Chen Shui-bian in custody and hoping he could be released before June 11, the day the Taiwan High Court is scheduled to deliver a ruling on Chen Shui-bian’s second trial.
The Taipei District Court sentenced Chen Shui-bian and his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) to life in prison in September after handing down a guilty verdict in the first trial. In addition to the life sentences, the pair were also found guilty of embezzlement and taking bribes totaling NT$800 million.
Chen Shui-bian was fined NT$200 million and had his civil rights annulled for life for violating the Punishment of Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法) and Criminal Code (刑法).
On April 2, High Court Judge Teng Chen-chiu (鄧振球) gave an ultimatum to the former president’s relatives, saying that if the money was returned, Chen Shui-bian would have a good chance of being released on bail.
However, on April 16 Teng ruled that the former president should remain in custody for two more months until June 23, as he had not seen the money returned yet.
Cheng yesterday said that because Swiss judicial authorities were supervising the return of the money, the remittance would take some time, but he believed the remaining US$20 million would return to Taiwan.
Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達), a spokesman for the SIP, said yesterday the SIP would not comment on the remittance, adding that that it would only comment after all the money had been remitted.
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