Premier Wu Den-yih suing Lee Wen-chung

So the premier's attorney filed briefs with the Taipei District Court on Tuesday, accusing Lee of defamation and demanding NT$3 million in damages. Wu said he would withdraw the charges, if Lee would offer an apology. If he wins, Wu added, he will donate the compensation to charity.

The row started when Lee, lagging far behind his KMT rival in voter support, charged Wu with going to the Indonesian resort island of Bali together with an alleged mafia don, Chiang Chin-liang, late last year for the alleged purpose of making a lucrative gravel mining deal with the latter in Nantou and arranging a rigging of the election of the speaker and deputy speaker of Nantou's county council. Wu counterattacked last Friday, promising to quit as premier if Lee could produce concrete evidence that he had undertaken the alleged illicit actions on their Bali tour and demanding the opposition party candidate apologize if he couldn't in three days.

Lee failed to prove Wu's “wrongdoing” beyond any doubt, although he promised to present a “secret” witness against the premier when the court begins his trial. The DPP nominee, whose popular support has dropped since he exposed Wu's unproven connection with the ex-convict who is now on parole after doing time for murder, gun-running and extortion, is ready to stand trial, seemingly convinced of his innocence.

But the fact is that it will take too long to close the case. Prosecutors may take a week to complete their investigation and indict Lee, if they have enough evidence against him. The trial that ensues may go on until next year. Voters will go to the polls on Dec. 5 to elect the magistrate of Nantou and its county council, which will elect its speaker and deputy speaker after it is inaugurated, along with 12 others and three mayors across the country. That means the trial is irrelevant to the election of the magistrate of Taiwan's only landlocked county. In other words, Lee could care less whether or not he loses the defamation case. The chances are that Lee might lose both the election and the case.

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