Taiwanese leader denies he embezzled public money, apologizes for scandal

By ANNIE HUANG

The Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's president refused to resign on Sunday and denied allegations that he and his wife had embezzled public money. But the opposition did not buy his defense and prepared to launch a new campaign to remove him from office.

President Chen Shui-bian's comments were his first since prosecutors indicted first lady Wu Shu-chen on embezzlement, forgery and perjury charges on Friday. She was accused of taking $450,000 from a special diplomacy fund in 2002-2006.

Prosecutors said Chen could be implicated in the case, but he cannot be indicted as a sitting president.

The graft allegations have re-energized an opposition campaign to topple Chen, who has served for six rocky years. Thousands of protesters marched in the streets this weekend in Taiwan's two biggest cities.

Chen said the accusations announced Friday were painful and felt like a "political death sentence."

"How can Chen Shui-bian be that kind of person, collecting false invoices to embezzle money?" he said Sunday in a televised address from the presidential office.

He refused calls to resign immediately but said: "If my wife is convicted, then because the prosecutors believe my wife and I act together, I cannot escape. I'm willing to resign before my term is up."

The president and his family have been dogged by corruption rumors for months, but the latest scandal blew up with Friday's indictment.

Some 4,000 protesters gathered earlier Sunday to demand Chen's resignation, and the deafening sound of blaring air horns rose from the crowd marching through downtown Taipei toward the wide boulevard in front of the presidential office.

"The prosecutor's report was crystal clear," said Tsai Wen-chih, a computer engineer. "Without concrete evidence, would any prosecutor dare to accuse the president of corruption?"

"Chen had better admit his errors," said Peter Huang, a businessman. "The longer he tries to hang on, the more catastrophic his outcome will be."

In his address, Chen denied that he or his wife pocketed money from the special diplomatic fund and complained that the regulations for the fund were "confusing and difficult to follow." He then launched into a long, technical explanation about how the fund works, and he argued that the rules for using it needed to be more flexible.

Chen failed to convince the Nationalists, the biggest opposition party.

"It sounded like a lawyer's, not a president's defense. We still want him to resign immediately," said the party's spokesman Huang Yu-chen.

Opposition lawmakers said they planned today to launch their third attempt at passing a measure to recall Chen. They made a similar attempt in June and in October, but failed to muster the required two-thirds majority in the legislature needed to pass the motion calling for a referendum of Taiwanese voters on whether to oust Chen.

The opposition is hoping that ruling party lawmakers will begin defecting to their cause and give them enough votes to pass the recall measure later this month. Already, the small pro-Chen Taiwan Solidarity Union announced its 12 lawmakers would be encouraged to vote for the recall measure.