Questioned for hours yesterday, he insisted that every expenditure was related to reasons of state, covered under official confidentiality. Current president Ma has allowed the judges access to the confidential documents. Chen's wife, son, daughter-in-law and brother-in-law have been named defendants in the scandal.

Taipei (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Chen Shui-bian denies the accusation of embezzling and moving abroad 14.8 million Taiwanese dollars (about 322,000 euros) in public funds between May of 2000 and August of 2006, when he was president, referring to "political" reasons but without providing any real explanation for the shortfalls.

The former president, questioned for four hours yesterday by the public prosecutor, called the accusation unfounded and explained the unjustified "withdrawals" according to "reasons of state", like confidential diplomatic missions. He maintained that he acted just like his predecessor Lee Ten-hui and current president Ma Ying-jeou. Chen says that when Lee was president, he did not explain 75% of the expenditures made during a delicate diplomatic mission. He recalled that Ma has also been accused of taking funds when he was the mayor of Taipei, to spend it on his monthly budget, and of sending 500,000 US dollars to his two daughters in the United States. The charges were dropped for lack of evidence.

Many analysts are skeptical, saying that Chen wants to "create the impression" of political persecution on the part of the Kuomintang Party, and of being treated differently from other politicians.

Chen's wife, Wu Shu-chen, has also been named in the case, charged with corruption and document fraud (at the time, Chen was protected by immunity as president): her trial has been postponed 17 times because of her complaints of health problems. It was suspended in October of 2007, when Chen said that the documents related to his "special expenditures" were covered by state secrecy. One month ago, Ma granted the judges access to these documents, a decision opposed by Chen's office as "unconstitutional and illegal". His son, daughter-in-law, and brother-in-law also face various charges of receiving and laundering state funds. The accusation maintains that at least 1.5 million Taiwanese dollars were spent to buy jewelry and other luxury items for Wu.

• taiwan
• corruption
• embezzlement
• trial
• accusation
• former
• president
• chen