TAIPEI - Taiwan's former leader Chen Shui-bian was on Friday acquitted of embezzling a special public fund, but sentenced to additional jail terms for other crimes, according to the ruling given by Taiwan's high court.

The court ruled that Chen was not guilty of embezzling a special public fund but upheld his previous convictions for document falsification and money laundering in the first retrial of his case.

The new ruling leaves Chen, who is serving a 17.5 year sentence for other corruption crimes, with an additional two years and eight months in prison, but he still has the option of appealing the latest verdict.