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Taiwanese vice-president denies making illegal claims for special expenses
Taiwanese Vice-President Annette Lu Hsiu-lien has pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption and forgery for allegedly using others' receipts  to make illicit spending claims worth NT$5.6 million (HK$1.34 million).
In a trial that began in Taipei yesterday, Lu, the first Taiwanese vice-president to be brought before the courts, accused prosecutors of using double standards in handling her case.
'We believe the special investigation taskforce is handling the cases and making charges on a selective basis without a uniform standard. This would only hurt the judiciary's dignity and public trust in justice,' she said  after the first hearing.
Prosecutors indicted Lu in September on charges of document forgery and embezzlement of NT$5.6 million in special allowances allocated to her for public spending.
They also indicted former premier Yu Shyi-kun  and former foreign minister Mark Chen Tan-sun,  who is now secretary general of the National Security Council, for the same offences.
They spared two former premiers, Frank Hsieh Chang-ting  and Su Tseng-chang,  who are running for president and vice-president on behalf of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
The five were accused of embezzlement by the opposition Kuomintang, which brought the lawsuit  in retaliation to the DPP suing  its presidential candidate, Ma Ying-jeou,  for the same crime during his time as Taipei mayor.
Mr Ma was charged in February, but the district court acquitted him in August.
Lu said she did not understand why she was being charged when  Mr Ma was found not guilty of the same crime and  other government leaders had made  special expense spending claims.
She said she also found it unfair that she and two other DPP officials were being charged, while the DPP's presidential and vice-presidential candidates had been  spared.
Lu said she wanted to single out the impropriety of the prosecutors  in making such indictments.
'I represent some 6,500 senior government officials in coming to the  trial,' she said, referring to the  number eligible to make expenses claims.
She said the practice - which allows officials to treat claims as a kind of subsidy - had existed long before she joined the government. Besides, she said, her spending on public functions had greatly  exceeded the special allowances allocated to her in the past seven years.
The special investigation taskforce, comprising key prosecutors, denied it had used different criteria in its inquiries and the charges.
'The DPP presidential and vice-presidential candidates were not indicted because we did not find them using receipts provided by others to make spending claims,' prosecutor Chou Shih-yu  said.
Both Mr Hsieh and Mr Su declined to comment.
The practice  has implicated political heavyweights from both the ruling and opposition parties, with President Chen Shui-bian   being named as a perpetrator by prosecutors in a state-fund embezzlement case.
His  wife, Wu Shu-chen,  is on trial for allegedly embezzling NT$14.8 million from state coffers.  Prosecutors said they had  enough evidence to charge Mr Chen with the same crimes, but had delayed the action due to his presidential immunity.



Annette Lu pleads not guilty to corruption