Control Yuan member Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) on Thursday called on President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to pardon former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), saying that now was the “best and most appropriate” time for such a move.
Chen Shih-meng made the comment during a Super FM98.5 interview hosted by Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏).
The Control Yuan on Thursday last week released a 499-page report on Chen Shih-meng and fellow Control Yuan members Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠) and Tsai Chung-yi’s (蔡崇義) year-long investigation into the switching of judges presiding over Chen Shui-bian’s trials.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
The report found that there was undue interference and misconduct by top officials and judges regarding the former president’s prosecution.
It would be incorrect to issue a pardon for Chen Shui-bian if the Democratic Progressive Party simply wanted to improve its chances of winning the presidential election next year, Chen Shih-meng said in the interview.
However, Chen Shui-bian had been treated unfairly and his rights had been infringed, so if the judiciary could not rectify the situation, it should be rectified politically, he said.
There were obvious traces of political manipulation in all four of Chen Shui-bian’s cases, Chen Shih-meng said, adding that there has never been proof that he embezzled money.
Chen Shih-meng said that he had always been a proponent of launching an investigation into the court procedures during the former president’s trials.
In 2016, then-DPP secretary-general Hung Yao-fu (洪耀福) and then-Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said that Tsai would seek to pardon Chen Shui-bian “at an appropriate time,” Chen Shih-meng said, adding: “That time is now, as the truth has been made public.”
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