Thursday 8 October 2009

US court rejects Chen Shui-bian’s case

A US court has dismissed a petition by Taiwan’s ex-leader Chen Shui-bian which he filed in a bid to overturn his life sentence and secure his release from detention, Chen’s representative said on Wednesday.

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Guanyu said...

US court rejects Chen Shui-bian’s case

Agence France-Presse in Taipei
07 October 2009

A US court has dismissed a petition by Taiwan’s ex-leader Chen Shui-bian which he filed in a bid to overturn his life sentence and secure his release from detention, Chen’s representative said on Wednesday.

The petition, addressing the United States as if it were in charge of the island, was filed in September after a Taipei district court sentenced Chen to life in prison on graft convictions.

However, the Washington-based US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces on Wednesday decided not to hear the case saying it was outside its jurisdiction, according to a local group that filed the lawsuit on Chen’s behalf.

“We regret the outcome but we will not give up,” said Roger Lin, head of the Formosa Nation Legal-strategy Association, which seeks the island’s independence from China.

According to the petition to the US military court, Chen claimed that the United States should intervene as it still “occupied” Taiwan under a disputed post-war arrangement.

The petition urged “the United States Military Government for Taiwan... to seek the immediate release of Chen Shui-bian from captivity, confinement, and restoration of his civil and human rights.”

Japan ruled Taiwan as a colony from 1895, but relinquished it in 1945 after its defeat in the second world war. The petition is based on the claim that the island’s status has been unclear since then.

Chen sought the US involvement due to the “duress and urgency caused by the illegal life sentence imposed on (the) petitioner by a corrupt Chinese court in Taiwan.”

Incidentally, a separate petition by the association on Taiwan’s sovereignty controversy was rejected by the US Supreme Court earlier this week.

Chen, whose eight years as president ended in May last year, has called his trial a political vendetta by the China-friendly Kuomintang government for his lifelong push for the island’s independence.

The 58-year-old was convicted of embezzling state funds, laundering money, accepting bribes and forgery. He has appealed against the ruling to the High Court.