| |
TAIPEI : A Taiwanese court Tuesday ordered ex-president Chen Shui-bian to be locked up on corruption charges that the former leader has dismissed as a politically-motivated campaign by the China-friendly government.
The decision by the Taipei District Court reversed an earlier ruling and saw the former pro-independence leader sent back to a detention centre outside the capital after spending just over two weeks free pending trial.
The judges said in their ruling they feared Chen could collude with other suspects, destroy evidence or flee the island unless he was detained.
The ruling is the latest turn in a long-running saga involving the former leader, who was arrested in November and charged with embezzling and money laundering only to be released on December 13.
Since then, Chen and his lawyers had been battling state prosecutors' attempts to have him put back in custody.
Chen, who left office in May after serving a maximum two terms as president, is the island's first former leader to be detained on criminal charges and faces life in prison if convicted.
One of the former president's lawyers, Cheng Wen-lung, described the ruling as "unfair" and vowed to appeal.
"The ruling is not a surprise, because apparently it is the result of politics intervening in justice," the lawyer said. "My client... said he would keep striving to prove his innocence," he said.
Chen, 58, has repeatedly insisted that the charges against him are politically motivated, accusing the Beijing-friendly government of his successor, President Ma Ying-jeou, of leading a witch-hunt.
The former president and his wife Wu Shu-chen stand accused of embezzling 104 million Taiwan dollars (3.15 million US) in public funds and accepting a bribe of about 12 million US dollars in a land purchase deal.
Prosecutors also allege that Wu took a kickback of 2.7 million US dollars in a construction project.
Their son and daughter-in-law were also charged with money laundering.
Chen, who came to power eight years ago pledging to fight corruption, has admitted his wife wired 20 million US dollars abroad but said the money was from past campaign funds and she did so without his knowledge.
His family has agreed to turn over 21 million US dollars found in their Swiss bank accounts to the Taipei government.
- AFP
|
