Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

POLICE TO CONTINUE TO LOOK INTO 319 SHOOTING

ROC Central News Agency

2005-03-07 18:33:04

    Taipei, March 7 (CNA) Police said Monday that they will continue to look into suspicious points surrounding the election-eve shooting of President Chen Shui-bian last year, even though they claim to have identified the key suspect in the case.

    In what they claimed was a "major breakthrough," police announced that Chen Yi-hsiung, a former head of the Wrestling Commission of the Tainan Training Association, is the key suspect in the shooting that slightly injured the president and Vice President Annette Lu March 19, 2004, when they were canvassing in an open-topped jeep in Tainan, southern Taiwan.

    Chen later won by a razor-thin margin of a little more than 25,000 votes against his rival out of more than 13 million votes cast. Despite having no evidence to support their allegations, the opposition "pan-blue alliance" accused the president of staging the shooting to win sympathy votes.

    Police said that although the key suspect died March 28, they will continue to look into his connections and the possible locations of the gun he is alleged to have used, and the distribution of the guns sold by the underground gunsmith alleged to have sold him the gun, as well as screening suspicious figures videotaped near the "hot zone" of the shooting scene.

    Hou Yu-ih, commissioner of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, also attempted to explain why it had taken so long for police to make their breakthrough.

    Hou said that Chen Yi-hsiung has long been on a list of suspects, as he was one of the figures who appeared in the videotapes taken at the crime scene.

    Hou pointed out that Chen was found drowned and that when his body was recovered the following day, his family is alleged to also have found three suicide notes. The family decided to cremate his body hastily to avoid an autopsy and never to discuss the matter. The alleged notes were also burned by the family and the police did not explain why the family broke its silence.

    Meanwhile, Wang Wen-chung, chief of the Tainan Police Bureau, said it is not easy to determine if Chen's family will bear criminal responsibility for failing to come forward, but he pointed out that should Chen one day prove to have been the shooter, the family will not be able to claim the reward of NT$53 million (US$1.72 million) as they did not supply the information voluntarily.

(By Lilian Wu)

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