Ex-President Chen kicked in the rear at his first court appearance

Chen said that Lei and other officials from the Shipbuilding Office had, after 1990, received US$20 million as commission, which the former president said "was a blatant indication of graft."

Chen said that after 1990, US$20 million was discovered in a bank account held by Lei, which was a blatant indication of graft.

But Lei rebutted Chen's claim and filed a suit against him.

Lei and five other military officials were indicted in 2001 on charges of receiving kickbacks from the French ship-building company that builds the Lafayette.

Taiwan bought the six frigates in 1991 at a cost of US$2.8 billion, of which around US$500 million was reported to be kickbacks paid to officials in Paris, Taipei and Beijing.

During Monday's trial, Chen reportedly defended himself as having made "rational comments" and "questioned suspicious points" in a case that has not yet been settled.

Chen said it was clear as daylight that there must have been more fingers in the Lafayette pie, as the NT$15 billion commission allegedly involved in Taiwan's US$2.8 billion purchase of six Lafayette frigates in 1991 could not have been bagged solely by the two people accused in the case.

The two are Wang Chuan-pu, an arms broker whose whereabouts remain unknown, and Kuo Li-heng, a former naval officer who is behind bars in Taiwan.

Chen said it took him by surprise that he has now become a "defendant" in a court case after his many years of trying to protect the country and its people's rights and interests.

He urged the judicial system to fight to reveal the truth behind the Lafayette frigate procurement scandal, so as not to allow those involved in the scandal to switch the attention of nationals from the case by filing defamation suits against an ex-President. "This is the biggest expectation of all nationals, and I would like to show up at the court for as many times as required, as long as the truth of the procurement scandal can come to light."

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