Taiwan Ex-Leader Held In Corruption Probe

A Taiwanese court ordered former President Chen Shui-bian held on corruption charges Wednesday, an ignominious decision for a man who won acclaim for standing up to China with pro-independence policies.

The ruling came at the end of a marathon 21-hour court hearing that began with lengthy interrogation Tuesday but was interrupted by a trip to the hospital and didn't conclude until dawn Wednesday.

Chen, who has denied any wrongdoing, was ordered detained under an order that does not constitute an indictment. He can be held for four months before being formally charged.

As prosecutors prepare their case, he is expected to be held in the same jail in suburban Taipei where, as a dissident leader 21 years ago, he served eight months for defaming an official of the ruling Nationalist Party during the waning days of Taiwan's infamous martial law regime.

The hearing was interrupted for several hours after the former leader complained that he had been injured while being transported from a prosecutors' office to the nearby court building. He was returned to the court after doctors found he had sustained only a minor muscle tear, said court spokesman Huang Chun-ming.

Wednesday's court order has implications beyond Taiwan, where he is reviled by millions for his apparent toleration for corruption. But he is also lionized by millions for his willingness to stand up to both Chinese threats and American opposition to his anti-China line.

China insists that Taiwan is part of Chinese territory and has threatened war if the island moves to make its 59-year break with the mainland permanent.

Chen was also criticized repeatedly by the United States, Taiwan's most important foreign partner, over the China issue. During Chen's recently concluded presidency, Chen was often seen by U.S. officials as a loose cannon who could provoke a Chinese invasion.

Chen denies any suggestion that his pro-independence policies are provocative.

He defiantly predicted his arrest and tried to link it to alleged attempts by his successor, President Ma Ying-jeou, to placate China. Ma has made reconciliation with China the centerpiece of his six-month-old administration.

"This is a political persecution," Chen declared as he was led from the prosecutors' office in handcuffs Tuesday afternoon. "Cheers for Taiwan."

Li Yihu, a Taiwan expert at Peking University in Beijing said Chen's prosecution is not related to China.

"It is a case involving a great amount of money and has had a negative influence, so it must be dealt with," he said. "It is nothing to do with placating the mainland."

Fan Liqing, a spokeswoman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, told reporters Beijing "had noted" Chen's detention on corruption charges, but rejected Chen's claim that his detention was linked to moves to improve ties between the two sides as "a pure fabrication."

Corruption allegations seriously undermined his authority during Chen's last two years in office, and provoked mass demonstrations demanding his resignation.

Family and close advisers were imprisoned on a variety of graft charges, his wife went on trial for allegedly looting a special presidential fund, and Chen himself became the subject of a complex series of judicial probes.

His questioning Tuesday by a special team of prosecutors focused on allegations he laundered money and made illegal use of the special presidential fund during his eight years in office that ended in May.

In a dramatic television appearance in August Chen admitted that he broke the law by not fully disclosing campaign donations he had received, after a lawmaker from Ma's Nationalist Party alleged that Chen's son and daughter-in-law moved millions of dollars to Switzerland in 2007, and then forwarded the funds to the Cayman Islands.

At the time prosecutors said they wanted to determine whether the funds were indeed donations left over from political campaigns - as Chen insisted - or whether bribery might have been involved.

Under Taiwanese law, false declaration of donations is subject to a fine but money laundering carries a seven-year prison sentence.