Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) lawyer said yesterday a Swiss bank had remitted US$1 million from the Chen family’s frozen NT$700 million (US$21 million) in Swiss bank accounts to a Taiwanese prosecutors’ account.
The move was made as part of efforts to secure Chen’s release on bail, one of Chen’s attorneys, Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文龍), said yesterday.
Cheng said he received a phone call from Chen’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), on Friday telling him that the Zurich-based RBS Coutts Bank had remitted US$1 million to a bank account designated by the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) of the Supreme Prosecutors Office.
Cheng said he visited the former president at the Taipei Detention Center as soon as he heard the news.
“He was pretty happy to hear about the money remittance,” Cheng said.
Chen Shui-bian was first detained at the Taipei Detention Center on Nov. 12, 2008, and released on Dec. 13, 2008, following his indictment. He was detained again on Dec. 30, 2008, after the Taipei District Court approved a request by prosecutors to take him back into custody. He has remained in detention since.
Cheng said he submitted an urgent appeal to the High Court on Friday following the visit to the former president, asking the court to rescind the ruling to keep Chen Shui-bian in custody and hoping he could be released before June 11, the day the Taiwan High Court is scheduled to deliver a ruling on Chen Shui-bian’s second trial.
The Taipei District Court sentenced Chen Shui-bian and his wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) to life in prison in September after handing down a guilty verdict in the first trial. In addition to the life sentences, the pair were also found guilty of embezzlement and taking bribes totaling NT$800 million.
Chen Shui-bian was fined NT$200 million and had his civil rights annulled for life for violating the Punishment of Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法) and Criminal Code (刑法).
On April 2, High Court Judge Teng Chen-chiu (鄧振球) gave an ultimatum to the former president’s relatives, saying that if the money was returned, Chen Shui-bian would have a good chance of being released on bail.
However, on April 16 Teng ruled that the former president should remain in custody for two more months until June 23, as he had not seen the money returned yet.
Cheng yesterday said that because Swiss judicial authorities were supervising the return of the money, the remittance would take some time, but he believed the remaining US$20 million would return to Taiwan.
Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達), a spokesman for the SIP, said yesterday the SIP would not comment on the remittance, adding that that it would only comment after all the money had been remitted.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS