Mentor urges President Ma to ensure trial fairness

Jerome Cohen's comments to The Associated Press follow last week's biting skit that mocked former President Chen Shui-bian, performed by prosecutors at a Taiwan “Law Day” dinner attended by Justice Minister Wang Ching-feng, judges, and other leading lights of the island's legal community.

The skit made fun of Chen at the time of his arrest on graft charges in November, with a woman depicting him waving his manacled hands in the air and complaining about police brutality and judicial persecution.

At least one of the prosecutors appearing in the skit is involved in the continuing investigation of Chen.

Chen goes on trial Monday on charges of money laundering, bribery and looting a special presidential fund. While admitting his family wired more than US$20 million to overseas bank accounts under its control, he says the money was unused campaign contributions that under Taiwanese law are his to deal with freely.

Cohen, now a law professor at New York University, is one of the world's foremost experts on legal systems in Taiwan and China. He mentored Ma three decades ago at Harvard and they remain close. They last met in the presidential office in Taipei on Dec. 16.

In a telephone interview with the AP, Cohen called performing the skit “unthinkable.”

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