TAIPEI, Jan 19: Former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian insisted on Monday he was innocent of taking bribes, as he appeared in court for a pre-trial hearing on charges he says are politically motivated.
The 58-year-old, out of office for less than a year, arrived in handcuffs under tight security for the hearing, the latest development in a case that has electrified this island of 23 million people since his arrest in November.
Chen and his family are alleged to have pocketed millions of US dollars through bribes, embezzlement and other fiscal wrongdoing, and could face life in prison if convicted on all counts.
“I’m not guilty,” he told the court. “Saying that I took bribes, I would rather die.”
The former leader has admitted that his wife transferred 20 million US dollars abroad but said that the money was from past campaign funds and that she had wired it without his knowledge.
He has also admitted submitting bogus expense forms while in office but said the money was used for “secret diplomatic missions” and not for personal benefit.
The judge ordered Chen to be sent back to his detention centre at the end of the morning hearing, and another hearing set for Wednesday was postponed to Feb 24 after lawyers said they needed more time to prepare.
However, two other defendants in the case – businessman Tsai Ming-che and retired government official Lee Chieh-mu – pleaded guilty on charges relating to a science park land purchase deal in the afternoon hearing.
Chen and his wife, Wu Shu-chen, are accused of accepting a bribe of about 12 million US dollars in the land purchase deal.
No date has yet been set for the trial to begin.
Chen’s first court appearance since his appeal for bail was refused earlier this month coincided with the publication of his 246-page diary “Taiwan’s Cross”. Chen’s office said 20,000 copies had been printed.
In the month-long diary beginning on November 11 when he was detained at the Tucheng detention centre outside Taipei, the former president describes the deterioration of his physical condition as a result of his hunger strike.
Chen refused to eat in protest at what he alleges is a political witch-hunt by the pro-China government against him.
“As I said before, I’m not the first person and will not be the last one to fall victim to the political persecution jointly launched by the Ma Ying-jeou government and Beijing,” he writes in the diary.
The diary’s preface is written by Lee Hung-hsi, Chen’s mentor at Taiwan University law school.A bookstore in Taipei said hundreds of copies had been snapped up in the first few hours of sale.
The former president and his wife are accused of embezzling 104 million Taiwan dollars (3.15 million US dollars) in public funds as well as taking the land purchase bribe.
Prosecutors also allege that Wu got a kickback of 2.7 million US dollars in a construction project.
Their son and daughter-in-law have also been charged with money laundering.
Taiwan’s former intelligence chief Yeh Sheng-mao was jailed in December for covering up Chen’s suspected money laundering activities abroad.
Chen’s family have agreed to turn over 21 million US dollars found in their Swiss bank accounts to the Taipei government.
Taiwan’s high court earlier this month rejected Chen’s appeal against his detention, saying that if freed he “could destroy and tamper with the evidence and collude with other suspects or witnesses,” or that he could flee.
Chen, who pledged to clean up notoriously corrupt Taiwanese politics when he took power in 2000, left office in May after serving the maximum two four-year terms as president.—AFP