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Chen and wife get life for corruption

By Xie Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-12 08:29

A Taiwan court sentenced former leader Chen Shui-bian to life in prison on Friday after finding him guilty of corruption, marking a watershed in the island's turbulent political history.

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The court handed down a life sentence to Chen's wife, Wu Shu-chen, after also convicting her of corruption, court spokesman Huang Chun-ming said.

The couple were fined NT$500 million ($15.2 million), with Chen told to pay NT$200 million and Wu, NT$300 million.

Huang said the two were sentenced because Chen had done grave damage to Taiwan and Wu was involved in corruption deals when her husband was in power.

Chen's son and daughter-in-law were convicted on money laundering charges. They were sentenced to two and half years and one year.

The verdicts were announced as hundreds of Chen supporters demonstrated outside the court with banners, some of which read: "A-Bian is innocent" and "Release A-Bian". A-Bian is Chen's nickname.

The Taipei District Court convicted Chen, 58, on six charges related to bribery and corruption, closing the high-profile case that opened nearly three years ago and involved Chen's wife and other family members and aides.

Chen had been charged with embezzling NT$104 million ($3.2 million) from a special "presidential" office fund, accepting bribes worth about $9 million in a land procurement deal and taking another $2.73 million in kickbacks to help a contractor win a bid for a government project.

Earlier reports said Chen's family had more than $30 million in overseas bank accounts.

Chen, who served two terms from 2000 to 2008 as Taiwan leader, chose not to attend Friday's proceedings. He has been in a suburban Taipei jail since late December, after prosecutors persuaded judges not to free him following his indictment.

Chi Yen-lieh, an official in the jail where Chen has been kept, said he seemed calm after hearing the verdict. "There was no apparent emotional change." Wu, who has been out on bail, was not in the court either.

Chen's spokesman Chiang Chih-ming criticized the verdicts as unjust.

"We expected heavy sentences, but we cannot accept these because this panel has violated ... procedural justice," he said. Under Taiwan's law, a life sentence automatically means convicts can appeal.

Chen has said the charges against him are political, denied any wrongdoing and said he would appeal against the verdict.

Wang Hailiang, a Shanghai-based expert on Taiwan studies, said on Friday that the verdict came as no surprise. "And now we have to see how long the case lasts," he said.

"Chen will not give up his struggle even after the second verdict or the final judgment, and his (opposition) Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will fight for him. But their space is very limited," he told China Daily.

Chen has pleaded not guilty and claims he is being persecuted for his pro-independence views by his successor Ma Ying-jeou, who has been pushing for closer cross-Straits ties since he came to power last May.

The DPP, Chen's party during almost his entire political career, has threatened to resort to "street protests" against the verdict.

But Wang said he did not think the DPP could stoke social unrest because "most of Taiwan residents do not sympathize with Chen now that the case has become clearer," he said.

Pan his-tang, a professor in Taiwan's Tamkang University, however, is not that optimistic. "I am afraid making an issue out of Chen's case will be the DPP's last resort."

The pro-independence DPP tried hard to challenge Ma and his ruling Kuomintang (KMT) by making use of public dissatisfaction over the government's alleged mishandling of Typhoon Morakot. It even invited the Dalai Lama to visit the island to "console" the victims.

Though these problems have been tackled well by Ma, the DPP will still make a hue and cry over Chen's case before the elections for the county magistrates and city mayors, he said.

AP and Reuters contributed to the story