Taiwan's top attorney resigns over ex-leader's graft case

Jan 19, 2010, 13:04 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan Prosecutor General Chen Tsung-ming tendered his resignation Tuesday to the Justice Ministry, hours after he was impeached for negligence in handling the corruption investigation involving former president Chen Shui-bian.

The Control Yuan, the government's top watchdog agency, voted to impeach him for failing to prevent a key associate of the former president from fleeing abroad and for meeting the associate privately.

Chen Tsung-ming, who was handpicked by Chen Shui-bian in 2006 as the island's prosecutor-general, said in his resignation letter that his impeachment was a political witch hunt and was unfair while charging the Control Yuan with failing to conduct a thorough investigation.

'Some people have repeatedly fabricated facts and maliciously attacked me and my colleagues of the Special Investigation Task Force,' the prosecutor-general read from his resignation letter at a hastily called news conference.

The Chen Shui-bian associate Huang Fang-yen, a family doctor of the former president, was suspected of helping him launder money abroad. Huang fled shortly after the meeting with Chen Tsung-ming, which prosecutors later said had increased their difficulty in gathering evidence against the former president, the Control Yuan said.

Chen Shui-bian of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party stepped down in May 2008 after serving two four-year terms as president. He was indicted along with his wife, Wu Shu-chen, in December 2008 on charges of corruption, money laundering and accepting bribes. They were sentenced to life in prison in November and have filed appeals.

Chen Tsung-ming on Tuesday maintained his innocence.

'I have not done anything wrong,' he said. 'I have remained impartial throughout the corruption probe and have never tried to pressure any prosecutors in doing anything in favour of the ex-president.'

The prosecutor general has been a constant target of criticism by some lawmakers of the ruling Nationalist Party, whose leader Ma Ying-jeou was elected president in 2008. The lawmakers have alleged that the prosecutor general deliberately allowed Huang to flee the island to protect Chen Shui-bian, a charge rejected by Chen Tsung-ming.