TAIPEI: Taiwan's former intelligence chief was detained on Monday on charges of influence-peddling over his alleged role in a money-laundering scandal implicating former president Chen Shui-bian.

Yeh Sheng-mao, who was director of Taiwan's Bureau of Investigation for more than six years until he retired in July, was led away in handcuffs after appearing in a district court in Taipei.

"The judges decided to take Mr Yeh into custody as they feared he could otherwise collude with the other suspects involved in the case," Huang Chun-ming, a spokesman for the court, told reporters.

Yeh's lawyer Tu Ying-ta said he was surprised by the court's decision to detain the former bureau chief. "We could not figure out why the panel of judges made the decision," he told reporters after the hearing.

Yeh stands accused of covering up for Chen and warning the former president that a foreign anti-money laundering organisation was investigating alleged money laundering by Chen's family.

Prosecutors in August indicted Yeh on charges of concealing official documents and leaking national secrets, but his lawyers have maintained he knew nothing about the alleged money laundering.

"When Mr Yeh gave his former boss the documents, he could not possibly know they would be used in money laundering," Yeh's lawyer said. If convicted, Yeh faces at least five years in jail.

Three other people have been detained in the high-profile case, including one of Chen's former aides, a former cashier from the presidential office and a businessman.

Chen, his wife, son, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law and four others have all been named as defendants in the money-laundering case.

According to Taiwanese prosecutors, some 21 million US dollars were sent to Swiss bank accounts belonging to Chen's daughter-in-law in 2007 and used to set up a business registered in the Cayman Islands for suspected money laundering.

Chen has admitted his wife wired 20 million US dollars abroad from his past campaign funds but said she did so without his knowledge.

Chen, who came to power pledging to pursue independence, has denied money laundering, saying the allegations are politically motivated and had come from the China-friendly Kuomintang government.

Chen is already being investigated for allegedly embezzling 14.8 million Taiwan dollars (around 450,000 US dollars) in special expenses when he was president, and his wife is on trial in the same case.


- AFP/so