“She has asked for a leave of absence for one day,” a Taipei district court spokesman said yesterday.

Indicted on November 3 for corruption, the first lady was in court at her first hearing on December 15. She was charged with borrowing receipts from friends and relatives to claim a NT$14.8 million reimbursement from a public fund under her husband’s control for the conduct of “affairs of state.”

The first lady collapsed during a recess on the first day of her trial and was taken to the Taiwan University Hospital, where she stayed under observation until the end of last year.

She did not attend the two subsequent hearings for poor health.

Her request for leave was accompanied by a certificate from the hospital saying that she is not fit to appear in court, said Liu Shou-sung, the district court spokesman.

Liu said the court received “a reply” from the Office of the President to a subpoena of a file on “secret diplomacy,” for which part of the state affairs fund is claimed to have been spent.

“We received the reply at 2:30 p.m.,” Liu said. But, he added, he did not know how the Office of the President would respond to the second subpoena.

The court will decide how to respond today, said Liu, who claimed he did not have a chance to read the reply from the Office of the President.

At the request of the prosecution, the court first subpoenaed the file on December 22. It was turned down.

Another subpoena was issued on December 23. The court did not ask to see the secret file, which President Chen has vowed not to make public, but wants to know how all documents have been serialized and filed.

Prosecutor in charge Chang Hsi-huai wanted to ascertain whether there is documentation of the secret diplomacy as President Chen claims. His colleague, Prosecutor Chen Jui-jen, regarded two of the president’s six secret diplomatic sallies as “non-existent,” while investigating the state affairs fund scandal.

President Chen, scheduled to return from a visit to Nicaragua today, told the press corps accompanying him in Managua Tuesday he could not compromise agents involved in his secret diplomacy.

He said he alone knows the secrecy, which can never be disclosed.

Three other defendants, however, are due in court for the fourth hearing.

Among them is Ma Yung-cheng, President Chen’s former secretary general, charged with forgery and corruption. The other two are Lin Teh-hsun, Chen’s chief of the secretariat, and Chen Cheng-hui, an auditor at the Office of the President. Both were indicted for forgery.

The president was not indicted together with his wife, because he enjoys immunity from prosecution, but was regarded as an unindicted co-defendant, who will be formally charged on leaving office.

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