The office of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday defended his recent astonishing revelations at court hearings, saying that Chen’s remarks were meant to question the suitability of prosecutors and draw the court’s attention to his right to a fair trial.
During a court hearing last week, Chen said that the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) was suspected of accepting money from the Chinese Communist Party and that there was a DVD suggesting President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had intimate relations with a former ICRT DJ.
Chen also said that a Special Investigation Panel (SIP) prosecutor had asked Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to convey a message to him when he was still the president that a presidential pardon should be granted to then Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou’s former secretary Yu Wen (余文), who had been found guilty of using receipts from other sources to falsely report expenditures from Ma’s “special allowance fund.”
Chen’s office issued a statement yesterday saying that the matter concerning the TSU was revealed to Chen by SIP prosecutor Chu Chao-liang (朱朝亮) when Chu conducted a raid at Chen’s Paolai apartment on Aug. 16 last year.
As for the matter concerning Yu, the statement said it was later confirmed by Tsai that SIP prosecutor Yueh Fang-ju (越方如) had asked Tsai to convey such a wish to Chen.
As for the alleged DVD, the statement said it was well known that “somebody was peddling a certain DVD to both the blue and green camps during the 2008 presidential election.”
The statement said that SIP prosecutor Wu Wen-chung (吳文忠) had apparently played an important role during the process by suppressing the DVD during the election.
The statement accused Chu, Yueh and Wu of being “aggressively involved in politics, political parties and election affairs” and said Chen strongly questioned whether they were able to handle his case. The statement also criticized the way SIP prosecutors obtained so-called confessions from other witnesses in Chen’s case, saying that they suspected some prosecutors might have used “improper means.”
It said Chen never took the initiative to mention or confirm that he had financially supported his party’s members because he realized the sensitivity of political donations. Despite the Political Contribution Act (政治獻金法), there were many gray areas when it came to practice, it said.
“However, [Chen] cannot accept the accusation that the funds he raised from businesses were extortion, bribes or kickbacks,” it said. “This was unfair and overt political persecution.”
The statement said during Chen’s eight-year presidency, he donated more than NT$1 billion (US$28.5 million) to his party and candidates from his party as well as other parties in six major elections. Chen made an all-out effort to help them because he realized it was an unfair competition between other parties and the DPP, which does not have any party assets.
Upon its completion next year, the new Tamkang Bridge (淡江大橋) in New Taipei City is to be an important landmark in Taiwan, alongside Taipei 101, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said today. The bridge is scheduled to be completed in December next year and open to the public in the first half of 2026, connecting New Taipei City’s Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里) districts. It is an asymmetric single-tower suspension bridge, nearly 70 stories tall, designed by world-famous architect Zaha Hadid. The bridge aims to alleviate traffic in Tamsui and on the Guandu Bridge (關渡大橋), in addition to increasing the
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