Taiwan prosecutors questioned the son and daughter-in-law of detained former leader Chen Shui-bian on Friday morning for suspected involvement in a corruption case.

Chen's son, Chen Chih-chung, and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching, both defendants in the case, were interrogated for four hours amid speculation they would be formally detained.

The prosecutors let the pair leave on Friday afternoon, after the two "voluntarily" signed an authorization allowing the prosecutors to investigate the family's overseas bank accounts, a spokesman for the Taiwan prosecutors said.

Chen Shui-bian's daughter Chen Sing-yu was also summoned by the prosecutors as a witness, but she called sick and did not show up.

Also questioned on Friday was Cai Ming-jhe, another defendant in Chen Shui-bian's alleged corruption case, and Leslie Koo, chairman of Taiwan Cement Corp.

Koo apologized to the Taiwan public for offering bribes to Chen's family in an interview with local media after the questioning.

Friday's interrogation came two days after Chen Shui-bian was detained for alleged involvement in overseas money laundering and corruption on Wednesday.

According to a survey conducted by the United Daily News, a major local newspaper, only 11 percent of the people polled believed Chen Shui-bian's detention was judicial persecution while 60 percent disagreed.

Nearly 60 percent of those polled agreed that Chen's detention was judicially sound with 16 percent considered the move unnecessary.

Another survey conducted by the TVBS news channel found 63 percent of the respondents believed Chen to be guilty of corruption and money laundering, while 13 percent disagreed.

Some 70 percent of people polled by the Apple Daily, another popular local newspaper, said they did not support Chen's hunger strike.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2008)