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Taiwan ex-leader formally arrested in graft probe

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-12 14:26

Former Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian gestures while leaving the local prosecutors' office's Special Investigation Panel in handcuffs Tuesday afternoon. [chinanews.com]

TAIPEI - Former Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian, a diehard for "Taiwan independence," was formally arrested on Wednesday over money-laundering allegations.

Chen, 57, in power from 2000 to 2008, was detained on Tuesday after being questioned for most of the day.

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Following a night of deliberation, the Taipei District Court arrested Chen and sent him to jail on suspicion of graft, bribery, forgery, money laundering and illegal possession of assets, the court said. But Chen denies the charges.

Chen's arrest and suspicion surrounding others in the case has cast a shadow over his Democratic Progressive Party, now the main opposition party after its landslide defeat in legislative and "presidential" elections earlier this year.

The party backed him until he left it in August.

"The court, after questioning the suspect, believes the suspected crimes to be severe," the district court said.

"And there are enough facts to believe there was buried evidence, fabrication, altered evidence and conspiracy among suspects or witnesses," it said in a statement.

Chen has cast himself as a victim in the case, saying the aggressive investigation is the result of behind-the-scenes pressure from the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT).

The list of suspected crimes merge two cases, one involving misuse of a confidential special affairs fund and the other related to money laundering, a prosecutor's spokesman said. Family members and former aides are also being probed.

The Chen's is suspected of sending at least T$1 billion ($30.4 million) to Japan, the United States, the Cayman Islands, Singapore and Switzerland, among other places, local media have reported. The prosecutor's spokesman declined to confirm the amount.

Photos of Chen filled the front pages of newspapers on Wednesday, his hands raised in the air to show handcuffs as he left the prosecutor's office the day before.

Chen and his lawyer Cheng Wen-lung said this was "political persecution" and a "political plot" to get him.

But some analysts disagreed.

"They must have hard evidence, and it will hurt the DPP's image for sure," said George Tsai, a political science professor at Chinese Culture University in Taipei.

"I don't know if it will cause social unrest or not," Tsai said. "We might see minor demonstrations."

And in Beijing, a mainland official on Wednesday refuted Taiwan former leader Chen Shui-bian's claims of being persecuted by the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China as "a sheer fabrication".

"I believe everyone could see the purpose of his clumsy trick," State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Fan Liqing said at a press briefing.