The Taiwan High Court yesterday rescinded previous rulings and found former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) not guilty of corruption, in a retrial of their state affairs fund case.
However, it upheld Chen’s previous conviction for his role in the use of fraudulent receipts to obtain reimbursement for spending from the state affairs fund. On that charge, Chen was given an additional 20-month prison sentence that was cut to 10 months in accordance with a commutation statute.
The court also upheld Chen’s conviction for his role in a money laundering case that concerned a land deal in Taoyuan County’s Longtan (龍潭) and sentenced him to another two years in prison.
Photo: AFP
The new ruling leaves Chen, who is serving a 17.5-year sentence on corruption charges, with an additional two years and eight months in prison and a fine of NT$3 million (US$103,400).
Wu, while acquitted on charges relating to the embezzlement of money from the state affairs fund, was given a 20-month sentence for forgery in the matter of the fraudulent receipts. This sentence was also cut to 10 months in accordance with a commutation statute.
In the money laundering case, Wu was sentenced to two years in prison. She was also given another sentence of nine years in prison for her involvement in a bribery case related to the construction of the Nangang Exhibition Hall. The court ruled that Wu should be jailed for 11 years and six months, in addition to paying a fine of NT$22 million and being stripped of her civic rights for five years.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Last November, the Supreme Court sentenced Chen and Wu to 17.5 years in prison for involvement in the Longtan case and the appointment of Diana Chen (陳敏薰) as the chairperson of the Taipei Financial Center Corp (台北金融大樓公司).
The court at the time ordered a retrial of the state affairs fund embezzlement, money laundering and Nangang Exhibition Hall cases.
Taiwan High Court spokesman Chen Ching-chiao (陳晴教) yesterday said the court acquitted Chen of corruption in the state affairs fund case because he had spent more than the funds he received during his terms in office and spent all of the money on state affairs, including 21 secret diplomacy programs and bonuses to his staff.
Chen’s lawyer, Shih Yi-lin (石宜琳), said Chen has expressed gratitude about the ruling as well as regret over the sloppiness of the workings of state apparatus in his hasty detainment.
“We would like to think today’s verdict is related to the decriminalization of personal use of the ‘special affairs funds,’ because what the state affairs funds mean to the president is actually what the special affairs funds mean to different levels of government officials,” Shih said.
Personal use of the special affairs funds was decriminalized in May, ending a string of embezzlement cases against dozens of officials.
In its representation, Chen’s legal team also cited President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “reservoir theory,” which Ma used to defend his use of the special funds during his stint as Taipei mayor and which successfully saw Ma through his own embezzlement case.
While Shih said Chen would decide whether to appeal the money-laundering and forgery charges after reviewing the written ruling, the supreme prosecutors’ office’s Special Investigation Division said it would appeal the ruling.
Commenting on the ruling, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said the state affairs funds case “contains historical factors” which the DPP believes the judiciary should take into account, while upholding fairness, independence and respect for human rights during the legal process.
Both the Presidential Office and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesperson Lai Su-ju (賴素如) said they respected the court’s decision. KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅), on the other hand, said he found the ruling shocking and slammed the judges “for selling their souls to the devil.”
The court also sentenced Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) and daughter-in-law, Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚), to 14 months and 12 months respectively for their roles in the money-laundering case. Huang was given four-years’ probation.
Chen Chih-chung said he was happy his father had been found innocent, but could not accept the verdict handed down to him and would appeal.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
Foreign ministers of leading Western democracies sought to show a united front in Canada yesterday after seven weeks of rising tensions between US allies and US President Donald Trump over his upending of foreign policy on Ukraine and imposing of tariffs. The G7 ministers from the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, along with the EU, convened in the remote tourist town of La Malbaie, nestled in the Quebec hills, for two days of meetings that in the past have broadly been consensual on the issues they face. Top of the agenda for Washington’s partners would be getting a
RSS