Former president sues defense minister over shooting 'gaffe'
ROC Central News Agency
2008-05-27 18:57:24
Taipei, May 27 (CNA) Former President Chen Shui-bian filed a slander suit against Minister of National Defense Chen Chao-min Tuesday after the minister insinuated that Chen Shui-bian staged his own assassination attempt to try to win sympathy votes on the eve of the 2004 presidential election.
The ex-president entrusted lawyer Hsu Kuo-yung, a former legislator from his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) , to file the defamation suit against the defense minister on his behalf at the Taipei District Court.
Hsu told reporters after filing the litigation that he will not rule out the possibility of asking the court to summon Henry Lee, a noted Chinese-American forensic expert who had helped with the official investigation into the case, and prosecutors involved in the probe, to testify as witnesses.
Chen Chao-min said on May 21, the day after Chen Shui-bian finished serving his second term as president, that the wounds on the former president's abdomen were not caused by the shooting on Chinhua Street in southern Taiwan's Tainan City on March 19, 2004.
He was answering a DPP legislator's questions at his first hearing in the Legislative Yuan's Foreign and National Defense Committee.
The defense minister said his remarks were based on an independent inquiry conducted by the 319 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Commission, of which he was a member. The body is better known as the 319 Truth Commission.
His remarks not only drew broadsides from the DPP-led "pan-green" camp but also spurred criticism from within his own Kuomintang (KMT) ranks.
While Chen Shui-bian and his supporters viewed Chen Chao-min's remarks as defamation to the former president's reputation, some KMT lawmakers felt it was unfit for Chen Chao-min to comment on the shooting incident at a legislative committee session as the case was irrelevant to his current official duties.
Chen Chao-min apologized for his "gaffe" Monday in his first informal meeting with reporters since assuming office. "For the trouble I caused because of my faux pas, I offer my sincere apology, " Chen Chao-min said, adding that he was sorry for the remarks that were "detrimental to the image of the armed forces."
Nevertheless, Chen Chao-min insisted that all he said was "a quote from the investigation report of the 319 Truth Commission." He further said he would respect Chen Shui-bian's decision if the former president insists on suing him over his remarks.
Hsu said Chen Shui-bian is demanding NT$10 million (about US$327,869) in damages.
The 319 Truth Commission was created by the then-opposition "pan-blue" alliance-dominated Legislative Yuan in 2004 to conduct an independent inquiry to find out the truth about the mystery-shrouded shooting incident.
The shooting occurred when Chen Shui-bian and then Vice President Annette Lu were campaigning for reelection in a jeep in Tainan City. Both Chen Shui-bian and Lu were slightly injured in the incident, with a bullet grazing Chen's stomach and another bullet injuring Lu's knee.
The KMT-led "pan-blue" camp of Chen Shui-bian's opponents in the race claims that the shooting was the main reason behind Chen and Lu's narrow victory in the election as it generated sympathy votes.
Chen Shui-bian won by a narrow majority, taking 50.11 percent of the votes while his opponents, presidential hopeful Lien Chan and his vice presidential running mate James Soong, won 49.89 percent.
The official investigation was closed in August 2005 with a report saying that Chen Yi-hsiung, an outspoken critic of Chen Shui-bian residing in Tainan City whose body was found drowned at sea 10 days after the shooting, was the gunman. But Chen Yi-hsiung's family have rejected claims he was responsible and claimed the authorities were using him as a scapegoat.
Chu Chao-liang, a former head of the Tainan Prosecutors Office, said last week that he and other prosecutors who participated in the official probe would be willing to appear in the court as prosecution witnesses. Chu said they could give evidence to prove that the shooting took place on Chinhua Street.
(By Sofia Wu)
enditem/cs
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
