The Taiwan High Court yesterday extended former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) detention by two months on the grounds that he may flee the country if released.
The ruling dashed his family’s hopes that Chen, whose current detention order expires on Wednesday, would be released following their request to Swiss banking authorities that money be sent to a bank account designated by the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. Taiwan High Court judge Teng Chen-chiu (鄧振球) has previously said the move could enhance the chances of the former president being released.
On Thursday, the SIP said that another US$1 million in funds stashed by the ex-first family in banks in Switzerland had been wired to Taiwan. The latest remittance brought to US$13.51 million the amount Chen’s family had wired from Switzerland to Taiwan, with a further US$7 million left in two Swiss bank accounts.
Teng yesterday said that so far the court could only confirm the remittance of US$13 million to Taiwan.
He added Chen might flee the country if he were released, saying that Chen, as a former president, has better foreign connections than most people, and with the foreign assets he might take charge of, it was considered a risk to release Chen.
Chen and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), were accused of embezzling public funds, forgery and money laundering during Chen’s terms as president.
Chen was first detained at the Taipei Detention Center in Tucheng (土城) 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.
On Friday last week, Chen and Wu had life sentences reduced to 20 years in prison after the Taiwan High Court handed down the verdict for the second trial.
Fines for Chen and Wu were also reduced to NT$170 million and NT$200 million from the earlier NT$200 million and NT$300 million, respectively. Chen maintains his innocence and said he will appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
Additional reporting by CNA
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS