Chen Shui-bian wants 3-19 shooting re-investigated

Wang Tao, spokesman for President Chen's Office, declared that Chen, who remains in detention, agreed with Wu Poh-hsiung, chairman of the Kuomintang, who called for a new investigation on Wednesday. At a regular central standing committee meeting, the ruling party resolved to require the government to look into the shooting incident, in which a homemade bullet grazed Chen's abdomen on the eve of the presidential election on March 19, 2004.

Chen was reelected on the following day, thanks to sympathy votes, with a paper-thin margin of 0.2 percent. Lien Chan, the Kuomintang standard bearer, contested the outcome and appealed for a court decision to invalidate Chen's reelection. The appeal was turned down. In an appeal to Wang Ching-feng, minister of justice, President Chen was quoted as saying the Kuomintang is now in power and is under no pressure to reopen the case, which is known as “bulletgate.”

Two bullets were fired. Another bullet hit Chen's vice president Annette Lu. Her knee was wounded.

“President Chen hopes,” his spokesman said, “whether it is possible for Minister Wang, and the Special Counsel under her leadership, to reopen the case and look into the incident thoroughly to find out the truth and prove him innocent.”

The case was closed less than a year after the incident, when Tainan district prosecutors accepted a police investigation report stating that Chen Yi-hsiung, an unemployed martial arts coach, bore personal grudges against Chen, bought a handmade gun from an underground gunsmith, fired two shots in a split-second, disappeared into the crowd, and then committed suicide by drowning himself in a canal ten days after the shooting.

Police could not find the gun but said that the suspect told his wife he would kill himself out of remorse. The police found no suicide note. The suspect's wife said she was coerced into telling prosecutors that her husband intended to commit suicide. According to the police report, the suspect bore a personal grudge against Chen as he could not sell his apartment because of the economic downturn Chen induced during his term in office. A New York Times reporter described the police report as one ounce found in a dime store novel.

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