First lady questioned in graft probe

Over the past several months President Chen has been facing increasingly pointed opposition charges that he and his administration have fostered an atmosphere of rampant corruption around the Presidential Office.

Taipei Prosecutors Office spokesman Lin Pang-liang said Wu Shu-chen, Chen’s wife of 31 years, was questioned for three hours at Taipei’s National Taiwan University Hospital on Sunday.

Lin refused to characterize Wu as a suspect in the probe into the affairs of the Sogo Department Store.

“In this case, Wu is still regarded as a witness,” he said.

The wheelchair-bound Wu is reportedly in poor health.

Opposition lawmakers have charged that Wu received free vouchers from the store, and may have played a role in its takeover by a businessman whose bid was less than that of at least one rival suitor.

The Presidential Office has denied the charges. On Tuesday Presidential Office spokesman David Lee declined to comment on the questioning of Wu, calling it “a matter for the judicial authorities.”

Media reports say that Huang Fang-yen, the presidential family doctor, recently testified that he received NT$1 million (US$31,000; euro25,000) worth of Sogo vouchers but denied that any were passed to Wu.

Huang also denied that he was involved in the store’s ownership transfer on Wu’s behalf.

Taiwan television stations have repeatedly shown footage of Wu using Sogo vouchers to pay for designer clothes and other expensive items shortly after the store’s takeover in 2002.

Wu has not made any public appearances since the Sogo affair resurfaced in April. The case came under probe two and half a years ago with no judicial conclusion.

But new evidence gathered by the opposition lawmakers prompted the prosecutors and investigators to reopen the case.

The first lady remained secluded on Tuesday, her 55th birthday, despite her past practice of appearing in public to mark the event.

She had been paralyzed from the waist down since a light truck driven by one of Chen’s supporters accidentally ran her over in 1985 at a campaign rally in Chen’s hometown after he tried but failed to win the race for Tainan County chief.

Chen has repeatedly called the incident an assassination attempt and blamed then ruling party Kuomintang (KMT) for making it happen.

Despite the denials and clarification of the charge by the KMT, Chen likes to use his wife to win sympathy whenever he was in stiff political competition or in political trouble.

Effectiveness of using the first lady’s unfortunate accident has diminished in recent years as more voters have learned to focus on truth.

Recent public opinion polls showed most of people in Taiwan believed that Chen could have earlier knowledge about Sogo voucher issue, although he repeatedly denied it.

Both Chen and the first lady will face fines for their omission in reporting valuable jewelry items to the Control Yuan as required by the rules to fight corruption.

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