Taiwan's ex-leader starts graft sentence
Source: Agencies |
December 3, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
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FORMER Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian was moved yesterday from a detention center to a nearby penitentiary to formally begin serving a 19-year sentence, after the island's highest court upheld his conviction on wide-ranging graft charges.
Chen, 60, was taken by a police van from the suburban Tucheng Detention Facility to Taipei Penitentiary in neighboring Taoyuan County.
Chen was convicted in 2009 on charges of embezzling US$3.15 million from a special government fund, receiving bribes worth at least US$9 million, and laundering some of the money through Swiss bank accounts. Together with his wife he was sentenced to life in prison, though their sentences were later reduced on appeal.
During Chen's eight years in office - he was re-elected by a slender margin in 2004 - ministers, assistants and relatives were investigated on corruption charges, and Chen himself became the object of a recall campaign.
Six months after Chen completed his second term in May 2008, prosecutors indicted him. Following his conviction, he was confined to Tucheng pending the outcome of his appeals.
Last month, Taiwan's highest court also upheld the conviction of Chen's wife, Wu Shu-chen, 57, who must begin a 19-year term as well.
Wu has been free since her conviction in 2009, largely because of poor health. She has been paralyzed from the waist down since 1985, when she was hit by a truck after a hotly contested political campaign in the south.
Chen, 60, was taken by a police van from the suburban Tucheng Detention Facility to Taipei Penitentiary in neighboring Taoyuan County.
Chen was convicted in 2009 on charges of embezzling US$3.15 million from a special government fund, receiving bribes worth at least US$9 million, and laundering some of the money through Swiss bank accounts. Together with his wife he was sentenced to life in prison, though their sentences were later reduced on appeal.
During Chen's eight years in office - he was re-elected by a slender margin in 2004 - ministers, assistants and relatives were investigated on corruption charges, and Chen himself became the object of a recall campaign.
Six months after Chen completed his second term in May 2008, prosecutors indicted him. Following his conviction, he was confined to Tucheng pending the outcome of his appeals.
Last month, Taiwan's highest court also upheld the conviction of Chen's wife, Wu Shu-chen, 57, who must begin a 19-year term as well.
Wu has been free since her conviction in 2009, largely because of poor health. She has been paralyzed from the waist down since 1985, when she was hit by a truck after a hotly contested political campaign in the south.
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