所謂「扁案」的5大荒謬

Five Absurdities in the Cases involving former President Chen.
Chen was wanted by the KMT, and that’s all the prosecution and the court need to know…

1. 史無前例，檢察官：「辦不出來就走人」

Prosecutor’s avowal to indict Chen, an unprecedented breach of impartiality.

2008年9月15日，陳雲南主任檢察官率特偵組檢察官八人，一字排開召開記者會，宣示扁案「辦不出來就走人」，創下舉世司法史先例。

From the very beginning of the news breaking the investigation on Chen, the prosecution office has been gearing up, apparently under the pressure, if not dire direction, of the KMT, to lock down Chen instead of finding the related truth. This observation was initially made lucid when, on September 15th, 2008, the chief Prosecutor Yun-Nan Chen, accompanied by eight prosecutors assigned for the case under the Special Investigation Division (SID), made his epoch-making avowal that the investigation must indict Former President Chen otherwise the Chief Prosecutor would resign from his post. The whole operation of spreading the dragnet to catch the former president at any cost was hence initiated, without any scruples of justice maneuver or even political persecution based on false criminal claims.

2008年9月23日，擔任國民黨秘書長的立委吳敦義質詢法務部長王清峰扁案相關人事，王清峰竟稱：「沒有問題，回去馬上交辦」。並於質詢結束後，立即前往國民黨中央黨部與吳敦義討論相關問題。

As the mission to nail down Chen has been publicly undertaken by the SID, the KMT political machine moved further to mobilize the Justice Ministry in the direction of catching Chen at any cost, blatantly without any reservations in open words exChenged in line of this ruthless political purging. This appalling fact was projected in the scene when then Minister of Justice Ching-Feng Wang publicly noted that, almost obsequiously, the case shall instantly be assigned and handled duly, when addressing to the inquiry made by then General Secretary of the KMT Dun-Yi Wu at the parliament interpellation meeting. Yet instead of returning to her office, Wang headed right to the headquarters of the KMT to discuss with, if not being briefed by, Dun-Yi Wu on how to proceed with the case against former president Chen.

2008年10月24日，行政院長劉兆玄在立法院接受國民黨立委盧嘉辰質詢，關於平抑物價與「收押」陳水扁等議題，脫口說出：「我們盡快來做」。2008年11月11日，陳水扁前總統被特偵組偵訊後，上手銬收押。

The mission to catch Chen has instantly become the priority of the KMT government as a whole. It took less than a month for the then prime minister Zhao-Suan Liu to publicly avow his involvement in the case against Chen. At a parliament interpellation meeting addressing to the inquiry directed by KMT parliament member Jia-Chen Lu on the efforts to level prices and, quite irrelevantly, to detain the former president Chen, prime minister Liu slipped his words and said “…we shall speed up all the efforts in this direction…”
And then a few weeks later, on November 11, 2008, after being interrogated by the SID for days, Former President Chen was humiliatingly handcuffed and delivered to his endless detention up to now, on vague claims of fraud and corruption, which were mostly overruled by subsequent court decisions.
Chen was wanted by the KMT, and that’s all the prosecutors and the judges need to know…

2.為關而關，台北地方法院審判中途換法官

Judge who was known to be prejudiced against Chen was singled out to illegally replace the legal judge to sentence Chen life imprisonment based on perjured declaration and fractioned facts.

特偵組收押、起訴陳水扁前總統，地方法院承審法官周占春合議庭於2008年12月13日及18日兩度裁決無保釋放，台北地方法院違背法官法定原則，召開庭長會議，改由判決馬英九特別費案無罪的蔡守訓合議庭審理。蔡守訓法官接手後，果然一再裁決收押陳前總統，並判處重刑。

The investigation and the detention and indictment of Chen was indeed made with efficiency, yet the judge legally assigned for the case, Justice Zhan-Chun Zhou has twice rendered decision of releasing Chen free of bail. Yet the KMT influenced the Taipei district court to, in dire violation of the law and regulation, replace the legally assigned Justice Zhou with a Shou-Xun Cai, who was singled out to hear the case at issue based on his record of favoring Ying-Jiu Ma, later president of Taiwan, who was indicted on claims of embezzlement but was acquitted by Cai. It is a longstanding rule that the judge must be randomly determined by lot-picking to at least in formality avoid influence of prejudice. And a judge like Cai with reputation of favoring KMT should be challenged even if he got lot-picked for the case. But the KMT has wielded its influence on the court to bend the rule and renamed Cai to hear the case, to serve the purpose of the KMT to use the court to persecute Chen out of fragile legal ground. Cai did exactly, if not more than, what the KMT wanted and kept detaining Chen for years before sentencing him life and putting Chen in jail to rot and die away.

3.檢察官脅迫，證人辜仲諒、杜麗萍作偽證

Perjured witnesses were forced by the prosecutor to be given for indictment

特偵組檢察官於偵訊期間，涉嫌教唆證人辜仲諒、杜麗萍指控陳前總統。杜麗萍在法庭上坦承她的自殺未遂是檢察官以收押脅迫的結果；辜仲諒更在「紅火案」高院庭訊時和他的律師及財務長供述，他在特偵組時，檢察官要他作不利扁的偽證，事實上「紅火案」的三億未流入扁家；李界木也被檢察官威脅利誘，如不配合，將讓他傾家蕩產。結果，陳前總統以「國務機要費案」被告收押，卻因「龍潭購地案」判刑入獄。

During the period of investigation, prosecutors in charge of the Chen case were alleged to have repeatedly coerced witnesses Zhong-Liang Gu and Li-Ping Du to make false accusation against Former President Chen. Du confessed later at court that she even committed suicide because the prosecutor has threatened to detain her if she refuse to cooperate to give false allegation against Chen; Gu also alleged with his attorney and treasurer during the court hearing of “Red Fire Case” that he faced threats during the investigation by the SID to make false allegation against Chen, and in fact the cash at question in the “Red Fire Case” did not go to Chen’s or his family’s pocket; Jie-Mu Li was also threatened by the prosecutor to state against Chen or he will lose hi pants in defying such order. Therefore, ironically, Chen was detained based on the case of “State Classified Fund,” but was, though eventually found not guilty in that respect, given tough sentence based on another coined-up case involving property purchase where false allegations were collected by prosecutors with coercion and illegal force. The whole record of the investigation, indictment, interrogation and even the court hearing were a chronicle of flagrant and hideous violation of due process, gross abuse of the power of justice, and dreadful persecution on human rights.

4.「國務機要費案」高等法院改判無罪

Protracted imprisonment is outrageous persecution since the corruption charge against Chen was overruled by the high court;

2006年高檢署檢察官陳瑞仁以「國務機要費案」起訴總統夫人吳淑珍引發「紅衫軍事件」；2008年陳水扁總統卸任後，立即被發布境管，不到半年立即由特偵組約談後收押；2011年8月26日，高等法院更一審改判「國務機要費案」貪污部分全部無罪。

It is clear that the KMT has been determined to decimate Chen by all possible means, but all of the outstanding charges were proved groundless.
The KMT’s plot to overthrow Chen’s regime with abuse of judicial force began even years before Chen’s second term ended. In 2006, Prosecution Office of the High Court indicted the first lady madam Chen on claims of embezzlement over state classified fund, and triggered the rebellious movement of “Red Shirt Army,” which carried out a prolonged and chaotic encampment of people hostile to Chen at the square in front of the Presidential Palace.
In 2008, Former President Chen was instantly imposed with departure banishment, a precursor of his impending ordeal. Half a year from then, the SID launched its investigation on him and shortly after interrogation and little if any criminal evidence, Chen was detained, endlessly till he was sentenced life in prison.
However, the High Court overruled the criminal sentence on corruption in the “State Classified Fund Case,” yet Chen remained imprisoned on ground of other minor charges. Chen’s health much deteriorated since 2011, but the KMT, in spite of international human rights institutions’ repeated pleadings and Chen’s personal request, ferociously rebutted any request to either improve the treatment to the former president in the prison or to render probation for Chen to receive sufficient medical check and treatment. The KMT is eager to rear the crop of its abuse of judicial force, that is the demise of Chen. And if rescue could not be not come in time, the perilous state of the Former President would soon lead to irreversible tragedy.

5.所謂「扁四大案」大多已判無罪定讞

It is a pity that the image of a banal and corruptive official cast for the Former President Chen has somehow stabilized even among some of the used-to-be-fans of Chen, despite that all the far-fetched and fragmented charges have either proved ungrounded or still pending in the court deliberating.

自2006年「紅衫軍」、「國務機要費案」，到2008年8月14日，卸任後的陳水扁總統召開記者會，承認選舉結餘款未誠實申報，違反法律相關規定；並在吳淑珍主導下將錢匯出海外，因而向全國人民致歉，引發政敵圍剿與媒體大肆報導「扁家貪腐」以及所謂「四大案」。經過數年司法審理與政治沉澱，除了「國務機要費案」更一審改判無罪之外，「外交零用金案」、「二次金改案」等或因罪證不足甚至法官直斥是檢察官拼湊、臆測，二審法院大多判決無罪定讞。「南港展覽館案」更未起訴陳前總統，該案主角余政憲、吳淑珍也由貪汙罪改為圖利罪，且尚未定讞。

All the illegal, if not only inappropriate things Chen has directly or indirectly involved so far are the failure to declare the balance of his presidential campaign fund and the lack of guard on his wife’s wiring money overseas. The criminal cases the prosecutors had endeavored in fabricating to frame Chen are these: “1. The State Classified Fund Case,” “2. The Diplomatic Allowance Case,” “3. The Second Monetary Reform Case” and “4. the Nan-Kang Exhibition Hall Case.” The case 1 has been given an acquittal decision by retrial. The 2 and 3 cases are built on total lack of evidence and presumption and sentenced without legal ground, and have mostly not reached their final stage. The 4 case has not even named Chen as a defendant. Yet the persecuting imprisonment of the Former President is being carried on endlessly, with an openly adopted forecast that Chen will spend his limited days in the crucifying jail.
Chen has committed some flaws, but the pains imposed on him and his families have much exceeded what he and the rest deserve.
If Chen would be left to wither and die in the torment of imprisonment, it would be equal to witness the death of judicial fairness and human rights causes in Taiwan.

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