LAFAYETTE TEAM OPPOSED TO PAROLE OF CORRUPT OFFICER
ROC Central News Agency
2005-11-22 20:11:35
Taipei, Nov. 22 (CNA) The prosecutorial panel investigating the high-profile Lafayette frigate kickback scandal has expressed opposition to a possible parole of a convicted corrupt naval officer related to the case, judicial sources said Tuesday.
According to the sources, military authorities consulted the panel early this year about the propriety of paroling former Capt. Kuo Li-heng, who has served more than 11 years of a life imprisonment term for another corruption case and is qualified for parole late this year.
At that time, the sources said, State Public Prosecutor-General Wu Ying-chao and the two prosecutors with the Lafayette investigative panel unanimously objected to granting parole to Kuo on the grounds that the frigate kickback scandal still has many dubious points that need to be pursued.
Moreover, they were quoted as having expressed worry about Kuo's personal safety should he be released. Several local and foreign people suspected of being related to the kickback scandal involving Taiwan's procurement of six Lafayette-class frigates from France in 1991 have been murdered, including Kuo's colleague, Capt. Yin Ching-feng.
Since learning of the panel's opinions, the sources said, military judicial personnel have been studying ways to reject Kuo's parole application.
The question about his parole was brought up by Legislator Wang Shih-chien of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) at a news conference earlier in the day.
Wang said a report carried in the French daily Le Monde cited the existence of Swiss bank files acquired by French authorities recently that show a total of US$17 million out of the sum of US$700 million in slush funds received by Andrew Wang, a fugitive Taiwan arms broker, flowed into Kuo's account in two installments between 1991 and 1993.
Claiming that Kuo might have transferred the kickbacks to senior officials in the then-Kuomintang (KMT) administration, Wang said the judicial authorities should step up their probe into the slush money flow and deny Kuo his parole.
Prosecution authorities said Kuo was arraigned over the issue after they came to learn of Andrew Wang's secret bank accounts in Switzerland many years ago. However, they did not make a breakthrough. Investigators said they believe Andrew Wang would have tried to bribe only middle-ranking military officers through Kuo, rather than any high-ranking KMT or government officials.
Switzerland has provided Taiwan and two other involved countries with a collection of bank files related to the Lafayette deal.
The State Public Prosecutor-General's Office said last week that the files are under heavy guard and subject to maximum confidentiality.
To prevent politicians from using relevant information to gain an edge in the Dec. 3 "three-in-one" elections, the office said the files will not be unpacked until after the elections for city mayors/county magistrates, city/county councilors, and township/village chiefs.
Minister of Justice Shih Mao-lin also said recently that the files must be translated into Chinese. To ensure that they are not leaked in the process of the investigations, Shih said the Ministry of Justice is drafting a package of working regulations and plans for a secure work place where the translators can be monitored while they work.
The files include 46 bank accounts under the names of Andrew Wang, the key suspect in the kickback scandal, his three sons and Wang's company, all of whose accounts have been frozen by the Swiss Federal Court.
The files also include a number of previously unexposed overseas bank accounts related to the US$2.8 billion Lafayette deal, as well as information about relevant capital flow in Switzerland, judicial authorities said, adding that the Swiss court files clearly document deposit times and destinations of the capital.
Wang was the agent in Taiwan of Thomson-CSF, the French company that sold the frigates to Taiwan. Thomson-CSF is now called Thales.
He fled Taiwan following the death of Capt. Yin, who is widely believed to have been murdered in late 1993 when he was about to blow the whistle on colleagues for allegedly taking kickbacks in the deal.
Wang has been charged in absentia with murder, corruption, money laundering and fraud.
(By Sofia Wu)
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