Asian Political News: REFILING: 2ND LD: Taiwan police implicate dead man in Chen shooting

TAIPEI, March 7 Kyodo

(EDS: FIXING SLUG, WHICH MAY NOT BE SENT TO SOME SUBCRIBERS)

Taiwan police said Monday they have identified the man suspected of firing at Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian on the eve of the presidential election in March last year.

But the suspect, Chen Yi-hsiung, died after the March 19 shooting, which injured Chen and his running mate Annette Lu in their election campaign in Tainan County, police said.

The suspect, 64 and unemployed, was found drowned near a wharf in the county nine days after the attack. He is believed to have committed suicide for fear of being caught, they said.

Police gave several reasons why they were able to locate the suspect, including his appearance in blurry video footage recorded at the crime scene, the timing of his death and some statements from his wife and children.

Some records also showed that the suspect once purchased a pistol and bullets from the head of an underground group suspected of making the bullets used in the election-eve shooting, they said.

The arrest of the man last December was seen as a significant development in the probe into the shooting.

''This is a major breakthrough, but not the end of the investigation,'' Criminal Investigation Bureau Commissioner Hou You-yi said. Hou also noted the suspect, a one-time bookie for campaign gambling, lived near the crime scene and had been known for his dissatisfaction with President Chen's government.

However, some analysts saw no powerful links between the shooting and the suspect, and said uncertainties as to the handling of the case still need to be clarified. For example, the gun used in the attack is still missing, the notes the police claimed to be left behind by the suspect to his wife with regard to his confessions are also gone, and his motive for attacking the president is unknown.

They argued that the police probe into the suicide of the suspect, a former diving expert and wrestler without any criminal record, was not convincing.

Opposition parties lashed out at the police, suggesting the announcement was simply made for political reasons.

''It has been almost a year since the shooting took place and the timing of the disclosure of such an achievement now is doubtful,'' Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Chang Jung-kung told reporters.

''The move is made simply to justify Chen's legitimacy ahead of the anniversary of his reelection,'' Chang told reporters. He called on the Chen administration to restart the investigation.

Chen, of the Democratic Progressive Party, won the March 20 presidential election for a second term, defeating the KMT's Lien Chan by a narrow margin. The shooting is widely thought to have helped Chen garner sympathy votes.

Lien accused Chen of staging the shooting and has declined to concede defeat. After the election, more than half a million of Lien's supporters took to the streets to demand an impartial probe into the attack. The opposition camp subsequently filed two separate lawsuits seeking to nullify Chen's victory.