Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu yesterday became the nation's first incumbent vice president to be a defendant at a hearing.
"Prosecutors unfairly chose me as an investigation target and then indicted me. The prosecutorial system should have thoroughly probed the nation's more than 6,500 government officials in their use of their discretionary funds before deciding whether or not to indict me and other officials," Lu said, while making a short statement at the Taipei District Court before she entered the courtroom.
PHOTO: CNA
Lu said that former premier Su Tseng-chang (
"We must not allow the faults from an incomplete system of the old era to bring new disasters," she said.
Asked by judges how she would plead, Lu said: "I am not guilty of these charges."
Lu told the judges she did not know the details of the process involved in the reimbursement of special allowance funds, never received the funds illegally or directed her subordinates to use fraudulent receipts to claim her special allowance fund.
She said the charitable donations she had made during her term of office as vice president exceeded the special allowance funds she had received.
The Supreme Prosecutors Office in September indicted Lu, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun and National Security Council Secretary-General Mark Chen (陳唐山) on suspicion of misusing their special allowance funds.
Lu, Yu and Chen were charged with corruption and forgery.
Prosecutors alleged that between December 2000 and May last year Lu used a total of 1,005 fraudulent receipts to claim reimbursements from her special allowance fund.
Prosecutors added that the receipts, collected by Lu's office staff and security guards, amounted to NT$5.6 million (US$170,000).
Earlier this year, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
A district court accepted his argument that by law the fund was an official subsidy, and acquitted him in August.
However, prosecutors have filed an appeal to a higher court to challenge the acquittal.
DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) was investigated for misuse of discretionary funds during his tenure as mayor of Kaohsiung. No charges were made against him.
Typhoon Usagi yesterday had weakened into a tropical storm, but a land warning issued by the Central Weather Administration (CWA) was still in effect in four areas in southern Taiwan. As of 5pm yesterday, Tropical Storm Usagi was over waters 120km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the southernmost tip of Taiwan proper, and was moving north at 9kph, CWA data showed. The storm was expected to veer northeast later yesterday. It had maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126kph, the data showed. The CWA urged residents of Kaohsiung, Pingtung County, Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) to remain alert to
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