Taiwan Today

The Control Yuan released a report Nov. 11 pointing out several faults with the investigation by the Tainan District Prosecutors Office into the March 19 shooting of then-President Chen Shui-bian and then-Vice President Lu Hsiu-lien on the eve of the 2004 presidential election. While going public with the findings, the nation’s top watchdog body did not pass a proposal to discipline the prosecutors for negligence, as the Special Investigative Division of the Supreme Prosecutors Office has reopened the case Chen and Lu were shot while campaigning in a jeep through the streets of the southern city of Tainan on the eve of the presidential poll. Tainan prosecutors closed the case in 2005, concluding that the assassination attempt was the work of lone gunman Chen Yi-hsiung, who was found dead several days after the shooting. The report, handled by Control Yuan member Wu Feng-shan, found four suspicious points on which the Tainan prosecutors had failed to substantiate their conclusions. Firstly, the report found that evidence at the scene where Chen Yi-hsiung’s body was discovered did not tally with the prosecutors’ conclusions concerning the time of death and the cause of death, namely suicide. Secondly, the prosecutors’ explanation for the shooter’s motive was not in line with forensic findings at the crime scene. The prosecutors claimed that Chen Yi-hsiung was unhappy with the president and wanted to kill him, but the evidence showed that the first two shots were fired at the vice president and at the jeep, respectively. Thirdly, the investigation determined that the bullets were fired from the barrel of the same gun, but no forensic evidence supported the argument, according to the report. Fourthly, the prosecutors failed to explain the absence of a bullet entry point or any blood stains on President Chen Shui-bian’s trousers and underpants as his gun wound was found in the lower abdomen. The report concludes by stating that the investigation was wrapped up without a clear explanation of many questionable points and the conclusions drawn without clear and definite material evidence. Furthermore, the prosecutors’ decision that the assassination attempt was the work of a single gunman who died soon afterwards and therefore could not defend himself against the charges has not put an end to the controversy surrounding the shooting, but has instead fueled public suspicion regarding the case. Wu spent a year completing the report, for which he interviewed over 100 experts and officials related to the case. (SB)