In a statement late on Friday night, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) lashed out at the government for using his alleged money laundering scandal to engage in a political vendetta, saying they could not rely on political persecution to govern the country.
Chen said he had donated more than NT$340 million (US$10.8 million) to his party for the past two presidential elections and that all the money had come from campaign fundraising.
It may have been wrong for his wife to wire the remaining money overseas without his knowledge, but she meant well, Chen said, adding that the money would be used for international diplomacy and public affairs.
“The money is clean, it does not need to be laundered,” he said. “I will not avoid my responsibilities, but [the situation] is not how it has been portrayed by the media.”
Last Thursday, Chen apologized for failing to fully declare his campaign funds and for wiring a large sum overseas, while denying he had embezzled money from the government or had been involved in money laundering.
He said his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), had been in charge of the couple’s finances and that he knew nothing about the transfers. Chen’s office later said that more than US$20 million had been sent abroad.
Prosecutors have said they believe Wu used figureheads, including her husband, brother, son, daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law, to wire money overseas.
In the statement on Friday, Chen said that although Taiwan is a democracy governed by the rule of law, his family had been treated unjustly since 2000.
“It’s like in the old days, when a government official who made a mistake would not only be killed, but his entire clan as well,” he said. “The political persecution I get is like what happened during China’s Cultural Revolution. I hope if I fall, there will be 10 more who stand up, and that if those 10 fall, 100 more will take their place.”
Saying the problem was the result of politics, Chen said that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) considered his victory in the 2000 presidential election as a “theft” that deserved the most severe punishment. His re-election in 2004 upset more KMT supporters, Chen said, and they questioned the legitimacy of his presidency.
Chen said the KMT criticized him for being uncooperative in the inquest into the election-eve assassination attempt. Now that the KMT is back in power, nobody seems to care about the case anymore, he said.
Following the assassination attempt, the KMT found other excuses to persecute him, he said, adding that they had questioned his role in the MRT system in Kaohsiung, his son-in-law’s insider trading case and the transfer of management at the Sogo Department Store.
He was cleared of all charges, Chen said.
What followed was the “state affairs fund” scandal, he said. Drawing a parallel between the case with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) special allowance fund during Ma’s stint as Taipei mayor, Chen said he had evidence to prove his innocence.
The KMT was now capitalizing on his foreign account controversy and was engaged in a political vendetta, Chen said.
In response, KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) said yesterday that the public would make its own judgment on the former president’s behavior, without elaborating.
KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) urged Chen to present solid evidence to prove his innocence.
In a statement issued later yesterday, the Democratic Progressive Party said the party had received NT$340 million from Chen
It also said that the amount was from Chen’s leftover campaign funds.
In related news, former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) office rebutted in a statement yesterday claims by Chen that Lee had engaged in corruption.
In an interview with the Chinese-language China Times Weekly published on Aug. 11, Chen said that Lee had ordered the transfer of more than US$10 million to the Taiwan Research Institute from secret funds at his disposal.
Chen said he had done his best to protect Lee during his eight years in office.
Saying that the cases mentioned by Chen had been investigated and closed by the authorities, Lee’s office said the former president did not rule out taking legal action against Chen if the latter continued to make groundless accusations against him.
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih, Rich Chang and staff writer
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