Former Taiwanese president questioned over graft scandal

Aug 12, 2008, 12:49 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan's ex-president Chen Shui-bian Tuesday denied any wrongdoing as prosecutors questioned him as a defendant over his alleged role in a high-profile embezzlement case.

'I never have any intent to profit myself, nor have I taken any illicit profits in either my pocket or my family's. I believe the judicial authorities will clear my name,' Chen said in front of the prosecutors' office after being questioned for four hours.

The former president is accused of being involved in a 14.8-million-Taiwan-dollar (483,000-US-dollar) embezzlement case involving his wife, Wu Shu-chen, who has already been charged.

Wu was indicted in November 2006 and questioned by a court over allegations she used receipts provided by others to make spending claims of up to 14.8 million Taiwan dollars from 2000 to 2006. Prosecutors then said they had enough evidence to charge Chen with the same crime but would wait until he left office because of his presidential immunity.

Chen, whose term ended in May, has tried to stop the court's proceedings against his wife by declaring the receipts and other documents gathered as evidence by prosecutors were secret, saying under the constitution, the judicial authorities had no power to access those documents and hence could not use them as evidence.

But earlier this year, the Supreme Prosecutors Office rejected his claim on the grounds that the information had already been published by the local news media when his wife was indicted.

His successor Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Nationalist Party or Kuomintang, Friday declassified the documents, saying they contained no secrets.

Chen Tuesday criticized the declassification, saying it was a serious violation of the constitution, which empowers a president to declare certain information permanently top secret.

'Although I have retired as president, I still have the obligation to keep the secrets in order not to endanger the national secrets and hurt our foreign friends,' he said in suggesting that he would cooperate the prosecutors in their probe.