No-show by Taiwan's first lady in Embezzlement Trial

Taiwan’s wheelchair-bound first lady failed to attend the second session of her embezzlement trial today while opposition lawmakers accused her of using a stalling tactic to help president Chen Shui-bian serve out the remainder of his term.

Wu Shu-chen, who fainted during the opening session of her trial last week, asked for leave of absence through her lawyers. She has since been taken to hospital and doctors said her blood pressure could fall if she stays seated for long periods.

When she was charged on November 3 for skimming from a secret presidential fund, Chen said he was innocent of wrongdoing but would step down if his wife was found guilty.

Chen could also be indicted when his presidential immunity lapses after he leaves office in May 2008.

Opposition politicians said Wu’s sick leave was part of a tactic used by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party to stall the trial and prevent a possible guilty verdict from damaging the party’s image.

“She could easily go on asking for sick leaves so the judge could not issue a verdict before 2008,” said Chiu Yi, an opposition Nationalist Party member.

Wu was paralysed from the waist down when a truck ran her over in 1985.

Chen called the incident an assassination attempt and blamed the Nationalists for carrying it out – a charge they deny.

Wu has pleaded not guilty to charges that she and three of Chen’s aides skimmed 14.8 million New Taiwan dollars (£339,300) from a special presidential fund.

Judges today proceeded with the trial of the three presidential aides, who were accused of perjury and conspiring to help the first lady embezzle money.

The aides – Ma Yung-cheng, Lin Teh-hsiun and Chen Cheng-hui – pleaded not guilty.

Presiding judge Tsai Shou-hsiun rejected a plea by Wu’s attorneys to suspend the trial, saying the proceedings were not unconstitutional, as they had claimed.

Wu’s attorneys had argued that presidential immunity granted by the constitution should extend to other defendants in the same case involving the president.

Meanwhile, ruling party politicians also urged chief prosecutor Chang Hsi-huai to drop out of the case, saying he was obviously biased against Chen because of his friendly attitude toward rival China.

Chang has turned down the demand, saying he had attended seminars on mainland China purely for the purpose of academic exchanges.

Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949. Chen has enraged Beijing by seeking to assert Taiwan’s separate status and rejecting China’s claim of sovereignty over the self-ruled island.