Special prosecutors yesterday indicted former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) for illegally seizing confidential government documents, the latest in a series of charges facing Chen, who is already serving a jail sentence for corruption.
Chen was indicted on the charge of violating the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Special Investigation Division (SID) members said.
However, because Chen never released any of the documents to the public, prosecutors recommended that the court give the former president a relatively light sentence proportionate to the crime.
Photo: CNA
According to the indictment, Chen ordered close aides to pack and transport important documents from national security agencies, the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to his personal office in Taipei after the March presidential election in 2008, when Chen’s Democratic Progressive Party was voted out of power.
Prosecutors said that after searches, inspectors discovered the former president had taken more than 17,000 documents, 3,419 of which were classified.
SID inspectors questioned people linked to the case 43 times and Chen himself at Taipei Prison, where he has been serving a 17-and-a-half-year sentence since late 2010.
While Chen told prosecutors he did not know how his aides handled the documents and that as president he had the right to destroy them, prosecutors said in the indictment it was against the law for him not to return the documents after leaving office on May 20, 2008.
The prosecutors alleged that Chen kept the documents for several reasons — to help him write a planned memoir and prepare for lawsuits in which he was involved and to collect evidence against other politicians.
The former president’s office yesterday afternoon called the indictment ridiculous and unfounded, adding that the fact that it was made one day after President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration raised serious questions about the SID’s motives. Chen’s office denied having done anything illegal and called for the abolishment of the SID, saying it was unworthy of the public.
Chen’s attorney, Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍), described the indictment as “political suppression.”
Cheng said the SID should be cracking down on irregularities involving incumbent government officials rather than on the former president, citing problems related to the production of an expensive musical, called Dreamers (夢想家), for the Republic of China centennial celebration last year, as well as the 2010 Taipei International Flora Expo.
Cheng also said that because the office of a former president is also defined as a public institution, Chen’s action could simply be described as moving the files from one public institution to another.
“It does not involve illegal conduct or corruption,” he said.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS