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TAIPEI: Taiwan’s Supreme Court cleared the island’s
President-elect Ma Ying-jeou of corruption charges Thursday,
delivering a final ruling in the high-profile case less than a month
before he takes office.
Ma had been accused of misusing more than 11
million Taiwan dollars (nearly $340,000) in expense accounts while
he was Taipei mayor, charges he strenuously denied.
He was cleared by a district court last year,
and subsequently by the High Court when prosecutors appealed.
In its verdict, the Supreme Court cited the
lower court ruling that “the defendant had no intention to swindle
money using his position nor engage in fraudulent acts.”
“The Supreme Court, after deliberation,
rejected the appeal by prosecutors and upheld the verdict of the
High Court which found Ma Ying-jeou not guilty of graft and breach
of trust charges,” said court spokesman Chang Tsun-tsung.
Ma, of the China-friendly Kuomintang party, won
a landslide victory in the March 22 presidential vote over Frank
Hsieh of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
He is to be inaugurated on May 20, succeeding
the DPP’s Chen Shui-bian, who is stepping down after the maximum
two four-year terms.
Ma has always insisted he acted just like 6,500
other government officials entitled to special expenses, describing
the case as an “ugly tactic” by the DPP to crush his
presidential bid.
“We welcome and respect the Supreme Court
ruling,” his lawyer Song Yao-ming told Agence France-Presse.
The DPP, in contrast, expressed regret. “We
regret the verdict, but we are not surprised as Ma is now
elected,” DPP parliamentary whip Lai Ching-te told reporters.
“Although Ma escaped prosecution, it does not
mean he is innocent.”
The corruption allegations stemmed from a
decades-old system of allotting special funds to higher-ranking
government officials. Analysts said the rules governing the funds
are vague and full of loopholes.
The High Court, in delivering its own not-guilty
verdict on Ma in December, 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.”
-- AFP
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