One thing we don’t understand is that our prosecutors at the Special Counsel under Procurator-General Chen Tsung-ming are dithering about an inevitable indictment of former President Chen Shui-bian for corruption in connection with the misuse of a public fund under his control for the conduct of “affairs of state.” To show they are not that hesitant, eight Special Counsel prosecutors in charge held a joint press conference last week to vow that all of them would resign if the investigation they are conducting should not result to the satisfaction of the public by the end of this year.
What they meant – they can all be good defense lawyers – is a formal indictment of the ex-president which one of their former colleague officially promised more than two years ago. Prosecutor Mark Chen indicted former first lady Wu Shu-chen for corruption on November 14, 2005, charging her with borrowing invoices and receipts from friends and relatives to claim a NT$14.8 million reimbursement from her husband’s “state affairs” fund. He wasn’t indicted along with her, for he enjoyed immunity against prosecution as president, but the prosecutor wrote in a written indictment of Mrs. Chen that her husband is an unindicted co-defendant who should be formally charged on leaving office. The former first lady is standing trial, but her husband, who stepped down as president on last May 20, hasn’t been indicted.
The Special Counsel prosecutors used to have an alibi for extenuation. President Chen claimed the dossier on his “personal” diplomacy, which, of course, is an affair of state and for which part of the refund to his wife was spent, is classified as “eyes only.” The papers were read by Mark Chen before Wu Shu-chen’s indictment, but President Chen wanted to get them back to the Archives of the Office of the President. In other words, the prosecutors in charge were denied access to the top secret dossier, unless President Ma Ying-jeou declassified it. The declassification was completed a month ago. There’s no reason why President Chen isn’t indicted at once. Otherwise, these prosecutors are simply making mockery of their colleague’s indictment of Mrs. Chen Shui-bian.
Meanwhile, she refused to be subpoenaed for the seventeenth time to her trial hearing. She appeared in the first hearing on December 15, 2006, passed out during a recess, and has since excused herself for absence from court on reasons of poor health. The court was lenient, though it threatened to take her into custody to compel her appearance, if she refused to answer the summons again. Her trial is effectively suspended until after her husband is indicted and they both can be tried together.
（本文刊載於97.09.22 China Post第4版，本文代表作者個人意見）
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