The Kuomintang candidate for president is suing Hou Kuan-jen, a prosecutor at the special counsel under Procurator-General Chen Tsung-ming, for fabricating question-and-answer records to indict him.

Sung Yao-ming, Ma's attorney, filed a brief yesterday, charging Hou with "recording untrue statements" that his client's assistant made while being questioned by the prosecutor.

The brief was filed with the Taipei district prosecutors' office in the morning.

In the brief, the attorney accused Hou of forgery by "recording untrue statements" by Wu Li-ju when she was questioned on the use of Ma's expense account while he was mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006.

Wu's untrue statements were used by the prosecutor to incriminate Ma, who was indicted for corruption on last Feb. 13.

Ma was tried but acquitted by the Taipei district court on last Aug. 14. Hou appealed the verdict and the Taiwan High Court turned down the appeal on Dec. 28.

The written verdicts the two courts handed down to Ma were filed as evidence against the prosecutor, who is planning to appeal again.

Prosecutors in Taiwan are allowed to appeal after defendants are acquitted.

"My client," Sung said, "is suing the prosecutor as the afflicted. He believes human rights cannot be compromised," the attorney added.

Sung said before the indictment, Ma complained to Hou that Wu's statements were not truly recorded. "Ma was then told by the prosecutor that he was obstructing justice," he said.

Moreover, Hou is threatening to investigate the "misuse" of Ma's expense account while he was chairman of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission from 1988 to 1991, vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council from 1991 to 1993 and minister of justice from 1993 to 1996.

All this sets a "very bad example" for the judiciary, Sung said. "And no corrective action has been taken by any of the top prosecutors," he pointed out.

Unlike in the United States, prosecutors in Taiwan are under the control of the ministry of justice. They are headed by the procurator-general, who in fact commands prosecutors assigned to the courts of law at all three levels.

A former justice minister, Ma could not let prosecutors abuse their authority, Sung pointed out.

At the same time, Ma and his Harvard law school fellow alumnus Chen Charng-ven are suing Hou and two of his special counsel prosecutors for purposely dropping corruption charges against a top assistant to Frank Hsieh, Democratic Progressive Party standard-bearer.

Chen, who filed a brief as Ma's attorney, said the three prosecutors investigated the alleged misuse of the expense account, which is officially known as a special fund, by the former mayor of Kaohsiung.

The other two were Shen Ming-lung and Chou Shih-yu.

They questioned Chen Yu-hsing, Hsieh's assistant, who admitted he borrowed invoices and receipts from friends to write off part of the Kaohsiung mayor's special account.

By dropping forgery charges against the aide, the three prosecutors abused their authority, which is punishable according to Article 125 of the Criminal Code, Chen Charng-ven charged.

If indicted and convicted, the prosecutors may be sentenced to not more than two years in prison.

Like his aide, Hsieh had his corruption charges dropped by the same prosecutor who had indicted Ma.

One of Ma's assistants, Yu Wen, was convicted of forgery and sentenced to one year in prison for using a few invoices and receipts to write off petty cash allowances from Ma's special account.

The written acquittal given Hsieh was filed as evidence against Hou and the other two prosecutors.

Now it is up to Taipei district prosecutors to investigate the charges brought against their colleagues at the special counsel.

As a matter of fact, no such litigation has ever been initiated.

The rare cases were filed to stop Hou from appealing Ma's second acquittal, sources close to the Kuomintang candidate said.

"We are certain that Hou will appeal, though he shouldn't," one source said.

In almost all cases of corruption, no appeals have been made after the defendants were acquitted. "Hou is after Ma," another source indicated.

The prosecutor has personal grudges against the former justice minister, the source went on. "That's why the prosecutor handled the two cases, Ma's and Hsieh's, differently," he added; Hou was "lenient" to Hsieh but "harsh" to Ma.

"That's why Hou is planning to dig up a series of old cases against Ma," the source said. "By suing Hou," he pointed out, "Ma is telling his persecutor to forget about all the cases."