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District court ordered to reconsider ex-president's release

ROC Central News Agency

Taipei, Dec.17 (CNA) The Taiwan High Court ordered the Taipei District Court Wednesday to reconsider its earlier decision to release former President Chen Shui-bian without bail pending trial on corruption and money laundering charges.

The high court gave the order after the Supreme Prosecutors Office's Special Investigation Division (SID) filed an appeal Tuesday against Chen's release early last Saturday.

In the appeal presented to the Taiwan High Court, the prosecutors said they will soon begin to investigate several other corruption cases allegedly involving Chen and his wife, and that if he is allowed to remain free, some of the witnesses, including three of his former close aides, might not dare to tell the truth.

High court spokesman Wen Yao-yuan echoed the SID prosecutors' concerns, saying that the possibility of Chen colluding with witnesses and co-defendants in the cases to tamper with or destroy evidence before the trial cannot be excluded.

Against this backdrop, Wen said, the district court should reconsider the case and return a new ruling.

In response, Taipei District Court spokesman Huang Chun-ming said that as the SID prosecutors stated in their appeal that they hoped the high court itself would return a new ruling, the district court had sent all relevant files and documents to the high court.

"Therefore, we have to wait until all those documents are sent back to the district court to hand down a new ruling," Huang said.

If all goes well, he added, the district court will open a hearing on the appeal Thursday afternoon at the earliest.

Chen was released Dec.13 upon his own recognizance, despite a request by prosecutors to keep him in custody, after he had been detained for 32 days as prosecutors prepared four cases against him. After four months of investigations, he and 13 other people were indicted Dec. 12 on charges of embezzlement, bribe-taking and money laundering.

Chen and his wife were indicted for embezzling NT$104 million (US$3.12 million) from a special Presidential Office discretionary fund during his presidency from 2000 to 2008.

They were also charged with accepting bribes worth NT$100 million and NT$200 million in connection with a land procurement deal and another NT$90.93 million in kickbacks to help a contractor win the tender for a government construction project, according to the indictment.

The prosecutors recommended that the former president be given the harshest possible sentence for his alleged crimes involving nearly half a billion new Taiwan dollars.

They also demanded severe penalties for his wife, son and daughter-in-law for their "unrepentant attitude" in the course of the investigations, and recommended commuted sentences for 10 other defendants whom prosecutors said had been cooperative and helpful in the process of the investigations. (By Sofia Wu) enditem /pc