The court ruled that the materials presented to the trial were not “confidential documents” concerning national secrets, saying the president was trying to interfere with the trial by making an “illegal” attempt to get the items back.

But the attorney for Wu said the defense would appeal.

Wu and two former aides of Chen’s stand accused of using false receipts to make claims from the presidential expense account.

But the president insisted that the receipts and other items seized by prosecutors were related to secret diplomatic missions details of which he refused to reveal.

While the materials had already been submitted to court as evidence, Chen later declared they were “confidential” documents not to be examined during the trial.

His declaration sparked a controversy over the presidential authority over confidential documents.

The controversy eventually needed the judgment by the Council of Grand Justices, which has ruled that the president has the authority to determine the confidentiality of documents.

Based on the grand justices’ ruling, Chen on Sept. 6 asked the district court to return the materials, including receipts, vouchers, magnetic records, written testimony by related individuals that were deemed by him to be “national secrets.”

The district court, while admitting the presidential authority over confidential documents, argued that a long delay by Chen in classifying the materials demonstrates that the documents are no national secrets.

The court said if the documents really involved national secrets, the president should have declared the confidential at the beginning of the probe.

But Chen did it only when the trial of his former aides in the case was coming to a close, the court said. The first lady has not attended her trial after fainting during the first sitting.

The court stressed Chen’s attempt, which was not intended to protect national security or national interests, violated the State Secrets Protection Act and should be considered unlawful.

“President Chen should not have intervened into, interfered with, or hampered the proceeding,” according to the district court ruling on Chen’s request.

“He should have respected and protected the constitutional institution on the nation’s judicial estate and the impartiality of the judiciary stands,” the court said.

“But he used illegal classification of the documents to back his request, failing to observe his constitutional duty,” the court added.

But the defense attorney argued that the district court had no right to determine whether the president’s classification of documents were valid or not.

The prosecution has named Chen as a “joint perpetrator” while indicting the first lady Wu Shu-jen on charges of corruption and document forgery on Nov. 3, 2006.

The prosecution determined that she had used receipts provided by others to claim reimbursements totaling NT$14.8 million from the president’s “state affairs fund” between July 2002 and March 2006.

But Chen, protected by presidential immunity to criminal charges, was not indicted.

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