Ex-MJIB chief arrested in court

Taipei district court judge Lee Ying-hao ordered the arrest of Yeh Sheng-mao, a Taiwanese J. Edgar Hoover, of FBI fame, at the end of the first trial hearing of the retired MJIB chief indicted for "dereliction of duty."

Yeh, Taiwan's first top spy-cum-anti-corruption fighter under arrest, was handcuffed and taken to the detention house at Tucheng, where Chen Shui-bian's son-in-law Chao Chien-ming was kept behind bars for months prior to his indictment for insider trading.

Two MJIB investigators were subpoenaed as witnesses against their former boss, charged with privately passing the top secret papers on money laundering to Chen, in which the ex-president was implicated. Security compromise was another count.

They testified Yeh ordered them at the end of 2006 to classify the reports on the unusual remittances of millions of dollars to a Jersey Island bank by the former first lady's relatives.

Tsou Chiu-chiang told the judge Yeh insisted on the highest classification of top secret and cautioned him not to tell anybody of the reports he had written.

These reports were handed over to the president at his official residence by Yeh in person. Yeh also told Tsou and his supervisor Chow Yu-yi copies of the reports were submitted to the procurator-general.

Chen Tsung-ming, the nation's highest prosecutor, wasn't asked to testify.

Chow, head of the MJIB anti-corruption center, said the amount involved in the alleged money laundering as was reported by Jersey Island bank totaled US$16 million.

Indicting Yeh summarily for "profiting others," Judge Lee said the ex-MJIB head should have tried to "refrain from giving the top secret information" to the former president, who was implicated in the crime.

"The principle of refrainment should have been followed," Lee said at the hearing before ordering Yeh to be taken under custody in court.

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