Tuesday, 23 June 2009

Daughter and son plead guilty to perjury, claim they were trying to protect Chen

The daughter and son of former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian pleaded guilty yesterday to perjury charges relating to the embezzlement scandal implicating their father.

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Guanyu said...

Daughter and son plead guilty to perjury, claim they were trying to protect Chen

Lawrence Chung
23 June 2009

The daughter and son of former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian pleaded guilty yesterday to perjury charges relating to the embezzlement scandal implicating their father.

Lawyers for daughter Chen Hsin-yu and son Chen Chih-chung said after a hearing at the Taipei District Court that the two admitted making false statements to try to protect the former president.

“Chen Hsin-yu already wanted to plead guilty to perjury charges after she was listed as a defendant by prosecutors” earlier this month, one lawyer said.

Another lawyer said Chen Chih-chung asked the court to drop charges against him in return for his admitting to making false statements.

According to the lawyers, Chao Chien-min, a physician married to Chen Hsin-yu, also pleaded guilty to perjury charges yesterday.

The three were listed as defendants by prosecutors earlier this month for allegedly making false statements about the secret-state-funds case in an attempt to protect the former president. Prosecutors said some receipts used by Chen Shui-bian and his, wife Wu Shu-chen, to account for funding claims came from the trio, but in previous hearings the three insisted they knew nothing about the receipts.

Chen Shui-bian and Wu were indicted in December for embezzling NT$104 million (HK$24.5 million) worth of special state funds. The pair were also charged with accepting bribes, money laundering, influence peddling and other offences allegedly committed during his two four-year terms as president between 2000 and last year. Chen has been detained, pending trial, while his wheelchair-bound wife is free on bail also pending trial.

Chen Hsin-yu was the last member of the family to be charged, with a relatively lesser crime that carries a sentence of no more than seven years in jail. Her brother has been previously charged with money laundering, while her husband Chao is appealing against a district court’s six-year sentence for insider trading, a case not related to the corruption charges against the former president and his wife.