BEIJING, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Taipei District Court opened on
Monday the trial of the former chairman of Taiwan's ruling
Democratic Progressive Party Yu Shyi-kun, on corruption charges
related to misuse of special funds, the island's media
reported.
Yu faces charges of document forgery and taking advantage of his
posts to embezzle funds.
Besides Yu, four other people including Yu's wife Yang Pao-yu
and Yu's three aids appeared for the trial in the court. All the
five have denied the charges.
After the first day's hearing, Yu told the waiting press he did
not embezzle from the fund, local media reported.
The prosecutors alleged that between October 2000 and December
2005, Yu had used other people's receipts worth 2.38 million New
Taiwan dollars to apply for reimbursements from the special fund.
Special discretionary funds are available to leading civil servants
and politicians when in office. Half of the payment should be
claimed with receipts, while the other half can be claimed with
merely a signature of the leaders.
Yu Shyi-kun formally resigned his chairmanship on Sept. 27, days
after he was charged with corruption and forgery.
Taiwan prosecutors indicted Lu Hsiu-Lien (Annette Lu), Chen
Tang-shan (Mark Chen), and Yu Shyi-kun of the ruling DPP and
another eight people on corruption charges for their misuse of
special funds on Sept. 21. The cases were transferred on Oct. 17 to
the Taipei District Court.
The Taipei District Court opened the trial of the deputy chief
of the Taiwan authority Lu on Nov. 19 on graft charges related to
misuse of special funds.
Lu denied the charges, saying she was unable to embezzle the
fund since she did not know the procedures to claim reimbursements
or where the receipts used for the reimbursements were from, local
media reported.
Chen's case is scheduled to begin on Dec. 3. (One U.S. dollar
equals to 32 New Taiwan dollars)
(Xinhua News Agency, November 27, 2007)