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NEXT STAGE IN LAFAYETTE SCANDAL PROBE 'A TOUGHER CHALLENGE': ROC ENVOY

ROC Central News Agency

2005-10-28 15:18:56

    Geneva, Oct. 27 (CNA) Taiwan's top envoy in Berne said Thursday that he sees the next stage of retrieving the money payed out as kickbacks in the scandal surrounding the sale of French Lafayette frigates to Taiwan and of implementing the legal assistance offered by Swiss authorities to the island as "a tougher challenge."

    Wang Shih-rong, Taiwan's representative to Switzerland, made the remarks after the Swiss Federal Council approved providing Taiwan with legal assistance.

    In a press release it issued earlier in the day, the council agreed to hand over documents to the judicial authorities of Taiwan, France and Liechtenstein regarding the scandal. The Swiss government also rejected Taiwan businessman Andrew Wang's administrative appeal attempting to stop judicial cooperation among the three nations.

    Andrew Wang, a major suspect in the scandal, said that providing legal assistance could go against the interests of the Central European country.

    Refuting the businessman's claims, the council said that the Swiss financial center is not used for criminal purposes, but for improving the transparency of commercial transactions. It further said that the scandal involves money laundering, fraud and homicide, and also involves a criminal organization.

    Saying that he "feels greatly relieved" after the Swiss government approved the hand over of documents to Taiwan, the Republic of China diplomat also expressed his highest respect for the Swiss government and its judicial body's spirit of venerating the law and putting the law above politics.

    However, he said that the council's decision only represents the completion of the administrative and judicial organs' procedures, adding that the work of the next stage will be focused on how to carry out the judicial cooperation between Taiwan and Switzerland as well as on how to obtain evidence of Andrew Wang's crime in connection with the scandal.

    As to Andrew Wang and his family members' deposit of about US$495 million in Swiss banks, which has been frozen on order by the Swiss judges, the envoy said that "getting the illegal commissions back is also the goal of future efforts, which will certainly be a tougher mission."

    The representative also said that he will discuss with Swiss officials on how to carry out matters related to the legal assistance and will arrange for members of Taiwan's State Public Prosecutor General's Office under the Ministry of Justice to discuss with their Swiss counterparts details of implementing such assistance.

    Wu Ying-chao, state public prosecutor general, has said that although his office has yet to receive official notification from the Swiss government, it can send its prosecutors to Switzerland any time to retrieve the relevant documents.

    The French company Thomson closed a deal in 1991 with Taiwan for the sale of six frigates at a price of around US$2.5 billion.

    According to the Swiss judicial authorities, although a clause in the contract expressly forbids the payment of commission, the Taiwanese authorities concluded from the inflated price that the deal constituted a serious case of international corruption.

    Taiwan submitted on Nov. 6, 2001 a request for legal assistance from Switzerland in connection with the case on the grounds that it involved fraud, money laundering and corruption, also according to the Swiss judicial authorities. (By C.H. Lu and

P.C.Tang) Enditem/Li