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Former Taiwan president indicted on corruption charges

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Taiwanese prosecutors on Friday indicted former President Chen Shui-bian on charges of corruption. His wife Wu Shu-chen, his son and daughter-in-law, three former presidential aides, and eight other associates and family members were also indicted. Chen has been charged with embezzlement, receiving bribes, forgery, and money laundering. Prosecutors plan to seek the maximum punishment allowed. Chen will continue to receive his retirement benefits, despite his indictment. Chen has been detained since his November arrest on suspicion of embezzling money from the state affairs fund. While in prison, Chen went on a hunger strike and was taken to the hospital. Chen, the former leader of the now-opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) who resigned the presidency in May 2008, has maintained his innocence and has said that the investigation is a political attack by members of the ruling Kuomintang Party. Chen spent eight months in prison twenty-one years ago for defaming Nationalist leaders. In September, he was cleared on more recent defamation charges. Last week, a Taiwanese court sentenced a former intelligence head Yeh Sheng-mao to 10 years in prison on corruption charges. Yeh was convicted of corruption, concealing a government file, and leaking confidential information to Chen.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 12, 2008 (boomark / email).