Taiwan's ex-president gets life sentence

BEIJING — Former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian was handed an unexpectedly stiff sentence Friday of life in prison at the end of a corruption trial steeped in politics.

Chen, 58, did not appear for the sentencing in Taipei, Taiwan, protesting graft charges he said were revenge for his push for independence from China during his eight years as president.

The conviction, which will be automatically appealed, marks a watershed in Taiwan's turbulent political history and a crucial test for the island's evolving democracy.

It also sets the stage for a deepening conflict between the ruling Nationalist Party, which favors closer ties with China, and the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, which Chen helped found in 1986.

A cordon of police in riot gear guarded the Taipei district courthouse while several hundred of Chen's supporters, some carrying signs saying "Free him" and "Chen's innocent," chanted "Justice is unfair" and "Judicial pandemic."

Chen's wife, Wu Shu-chen, who uses a wheelchair, also received a life sentence on corruption charges, and their son and daughter-in-law were given 2 ½- and one-year terms, respectively, on lesser charges of money laundering. The two were also fined the equivalent of $15.2 million.

The former president and his family were accused of siphoning at least $3.15 million from a special presidential fund and receiving bribes of at least $9 million through a land deal, using Swiss bank accounts in an attempt to conceal their financial crimes.

From the outset, the case was high political drama, with Chen playing the martyr, spending two weeks on a hunger strike and publicly accusing his successor, Ma Ying-jeou, of putting him in jail "as a sacrifice to appease China."

Bonnie Glaser, an expert in Taiwan's politics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., thinks the life sentence will heighten political turmoil on the island.

"It is a quite a harsh sentence. ... It is going to be hard for people to say that it was not politically motivated, and that could have profound political implications," Glaser said.

Even some people who believed Chen was guilty questioned aspects of the investigation, launched one hour after Chen left office as president in 2008. After his indictment, a three-judge panel that had ordered him released on his own recognizance was replaced, and new judges ordered Chen kept in custody.

"There was no due process at all," said Shane Lee, a political-science professor at Chang Jung Christian University in southern Taiwan. Lee said he believes the government of President Ma was worried about Chen's continuing political influence.

"Of course he still has influence. ... There is a saying: 'If you want to kill the snake, you have to kill the head.' "

Although Chen's Democratic Progressive Party was trounced in elections last year, it retains strong support and has at times tried to sabotage Taiwan's rapprochement with Beijing, most recently inviting the Dalai Lama for a visit.

Ma's political difficulties also were heightened by public criticism of his government's slow response to last month's typhoon, which killed up to 700 people.

Special correspondent Cindy Sui in Taipei contributed to this report.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.