Yu Shyi-kun announced in Taipei on Friday that he has resigned
as chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP),
according to Taiwan media reports.
Yu's resignation came hours after he was indicted by Taiwan's
prosecutors on graft charge.
Taiwan prosecutors on Friday indicted Lu Hsiu-lien, Chen
Tang-shan, and Yu Shyi-kun of DPP on graft charges for their misuse
of special funds.
The party's candidate for the 2008 Taiwan leader election Frank
Hsieh and his running mate Su Tseng-chang were cleared of such
allegations, according to Taiwan media reports.
The prosecutors found that between December of 2000 and May of
2006, Lu's office staff and aids used other people's receipts worth
5.63 million New Taiwan dollars to apply for reimbursement from the
"special funds" for administrative leaders.
They found that Yu and Chen had also claimed 2.38 million New
Taiwan dollars and more than 360,000 New Taiwan dollars
respectively in the same way.
Special funds are subsidies to administrative leaders of
different levels in Taiwan during their tenure. Half of the payment
should be claimed with receipts, while the other half could be
claimed with merely a signature of the leaders.
(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2007)