Taiwan court clears presidential candidate of corruption
TAIPEI (AFP) — Taiwan's High Court cleared opposition leader and presidential favourite Ma Ying-jeou of corruption Friday in a high-profile ruling that frees him to stand in the March vote.
Ma, who is representing the Kuomintang (KMT) party, which favours closer ties with China, could have been barred from running for president if he had been convicted of the graft and breach of trust charges.
He was accused of misusing 11 million Taiwan dollars (330,000 US dollars) in so-called special expenses during his time as Taipei mayor from 1998 to 2006.
A district court had cleared him in August, but prosecutors had appealed.
Upholding the lower court ruling, chief judge Liu Ching-hsing said the court found "the defendant had no intention to swindle money using his position nor engage in fraudulent acts."
Scores of jubilant KMT lawmakers and Ma supporters celebrated outside the court in Taipei after the verdict, chanting slogans and waving Taiwanese and party flags.
"I feel calm but I am not rejoicing over the High Court ruling," Ma told a press conference afterwards. "Honesty and integrity have been my motto, but I have been treated unfairly (by prosecutors)."
He said, however, the verdict was "only the beginning of another wave of ugly tactics to crush me," accusing the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has been in power since 2000, of trying to smash his presidential bid with underhand tactics.
The popular politician, 57, is running against DPP candidate Frank Hsieh to succeed incumbent Chen Shui-bian, who is barred from standing as he has already served two four-year terms.
"We respect the ruling of the court. But Ma's political credibility has collapsed and we believe the people will make the final moral judgment on him at the March 22 elections," a DPP statement said.
Analysts however said the verdict would help Ma, while Taiwan share prices closed up 1.0 percent as dealers said it had resolved some political uncertainty.
"The verdict definitely gives a big boost to the opposition camp's morale and helps attract some undecided voters for Ma," said George Tsai, a political science professor at the Chinese Culture University.
"However, many hurdles still lie ahead as prosecutors can appeal the case," Tsai said.
It is not immediately clear whether prosecutors will appeal against the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Political science professor Chang Yao-chung of the National Taiwan University agreed the verdict gave momentum to Ma.
"But it is too early to say whether he is set to win. But the High Court ruling will surely reflect in the January parliamentary polls."
The KMT is already tipped to win the majority of the 113 seats on January 12.
Ma, who resigned as KMT chairman following his indictment in February, had denied the allegations, insisting that he acted the same way as 6,500 other government officials entitled to special expenses.
"The High Court's decision further proved Ma's innocence," his lawyer Hsueh Song-yu told reporters.
The corruption allegations stemmed from a decades-old system of allotting special funds to higher-ranking government officials. Analysts say the rules governing the funds are vague and full of loopholes.
High Court spokesman Wen Yuan-yuan told reporters the panel of three judges had ruled the funds "should be considered as subsidies to officials, and that Ma was found to have complied to the rules and committed no crime in handling the funds."
Wen said Ma had donated 51 million dollars to various charity groups during his tenure as mayor while the special expenses he claimed had totalled 15 million dollars.
The DPP leans towards independence from China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory awaiting reunification, while the KMT is in favour of closer ties with Beijing.
The KMT ruled Taiwan for 51 years after KMT forces fled there from mainland China following their defeat by the communists in 1949. The DPP broke the KMT's stranglehold on power in 2000.
