Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday filed a defamation lawsuit against Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) over their comments related to the “319 shooting.”
Chen submitted the paperwork for the lawsuit at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office accompanied by his supporters, lawyers, Taiwan Action Party Alliance chairman Yang Chyi-wen (楊其文) and alliance members.
“If I do not sue them, I will not rest in peace when I die,” Chen said, adding that Ma and other Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) figures continue to “perpetuate the lie that the 319 shooting was staged and that I played along with the deception… I am fed up with their slander.”
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The 319 shooting refers to an assassination attempt against Chen and then-vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on March 19, 2004. Chen sustained a flesh wound to the abdomen in the attack. He won re-election the next day.
Han, the KMT’s candidate in the presidential election next Saturday, brought up the topic in Sunday’s televised presidential debate, accusing Democratic Progressive Party stalwart Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), who was then Presidential Office secretary-general, of staging the incident.
“Ma and then-KMT spokeswoman Sisy Chen (陳文茜) were the first to say that the shooting was staged and that I played along, faking a wound,” Chen Shui-bian said. “Now Han is running for president and he has claimed that it was staged.”
“These people continue to revile me during campaigning and I am fed up with it. If I do not sue them, there will be no justice,” he said.
“There are official investigation reports on the incident, including one made during Ma’s eight-year presidency, that state the facts,” he added.
Earlier yesterday, Chen Shui-bian attended a media event in Taipei where alliance officials and candidates presented their policies and canvassed for votes.
By appearing at the event, Chen Shui-bian risked breaking a condition of his medical parole that he not engage in political activity.
He was indicted on corruption charges in 2008 and found guilty in 2010, with the final ruling sentencing him to a 17-and-a-half-year prison term.
In January 2015, he was granted parole on medical grounds.
Chen Shui-bian has maintained that he is a victim of political persecution by Ma and the KMT.
Asked if the government might return him to prison, Chen Shui-bian said: “I am not scared”
“I do not even fear the Chinese Communist Party… Now I do not fear death, so what is there to fear?” he said.
“If President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) wins re-election, does she want me to go back to prison? A-bian (阿扁) is here waiting for her,” he added, referring to himself by his nickname.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS