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Chen, wife get 11 years for land deal
STAYING PUT:Speaking to the press immediately following
the ruling, former president Chen Shui-bian’s secretary claimed the verdict was
politically motivated
By Vincent Y. Chao / Staff Reporter
Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is set to stay in prison for at least 11
years after the Supreme Court yesterday upheld a bribery conviction in a land
purchase scandal.
Supporters of the former president said they were devastated by the ruling,
which can no longer be appealed. Chen’s office called the verdict — which came
just days after a local court cleared him in another bribery case — politically
motivated.
In the verdict, the Supreme Court agreed with the lower court’s ruling that the
former president and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), accepted bribes of up to NT$300
million (US$10 million) in return for helping facilitate a land deal between the
government and a property development company.
The deal saw Taiwan Cement Corp (台泥) chairman Leslie Koo (辜成允), whose company
was in financial difficulties at the time, pay the money to a close friend of
the former first lady. In return, the former president pressured a
government-run science park to rent and then purchase a plot of land in Taoyuan
County that Koo managed, the ruling by the lower court said.
Koo had testified that the amount was originally given as commission, rather
than a bribe.
In the unexpected decision made yesterday afternoon, the Supreme Court ruled
that both Chen and his wife should serve 11 years in prison, a reduction of a
year from the sentence handed down by the lower court, over their roles in the
scandal and that they should each pay NT$150 million.
Tsai Ming-che (蔡銘哲), Wu’s friend who acted as the middleman in the case, was
given an eight-month prison sentence, while former Hsinchu Science Park head
James Lee (李界木) was handed a 42-month sentence.
In the same ruling, the court also sentenced Chen and his wife to eight years in
prison for accepting a bribe of NT$10 million from former Taipei Financial
Center Corp (台北金融大樓公司) chairwoman Diana Chen (陳敏薰) in exchange for helping her
secure an appointment at a securities firm.
In that case, Wu was also handed a seven-month sentence for money laundering.
Diana Chen had insisted during the trial that the amount was given to the former
first lady as a political donation for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
during Chen Shui-bian’s tenure as party chairman. Prosecutors said the NT$10
million was instead promptly wired overseas.
As of press time, it was still unclear whether the sentences would be served
consecutively or concurrently.
Speaking to the press immediately following the ruling, in one of several suits
the former president is fighting, Chen Shui-bian’s office secretary, Chiang
Chih-ming (江志銘), said the ruling was politically motivated.
“Many of his [Chen Shui-bian’s] supporters have told me that they will not
accept this verdict,” Chiang said.
Chen Sung-shan (陳淞山), Chen Shui-bian’s former office manager who last week
visited the former president at the Taipei Detention Center, where the former
president has been held since December 2008, said Chen Shui-bian had not
expected the ruling to come so soon.
Just hours before the ruling was announced, Chen Shui-bian’s office had issued
the latest version of the former president’s bi-monthly diary, in which he
claimed he should be found innocent because both cases were unrelated to his
presidential powers.
He wrote that the courts should not confuse his “moral responsibilities with his
legal responsibilities,” adding that the ruling should be based on a strict
definition of the law “and not according to what society wants.”
Commenting on the verdict, the former president’s son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中),
currently running for election to the Greater Kaohsiung council as an
independent, called on the public to “show their anger” by voting against
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration in the upcoming special
municipality elections.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Office, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus
and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) all said that they respected the
court’s decision.
Declining to comment on whether the ruling would impact the upcoming elections,
DPP spokesman Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said that “both parties, regardless of color,
have already learned to calmly and reasonably deal with Chen Shui-bian’s legal
troubles.”
Yesterday’s ruling came a week after the Taipei District Court acquitted Chen
Shui-bian on a separate case of taking NT$600 million for helping facilitate
bank mergers. The Taipei District Court also cleared him of embezzling
diplomatic funds in June. Prosecutors have said they will appeal both rulings.
Three other cases, including charges related to another land deal, money
laundering and embezzling secret diplomatic funds, for which the Taiwan High
Court originally ruled the former president should serve a 20-year sentence,
were returned to the lower court by the Supreme Court for another ruling
yesterday.
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