SHANGHAI: Chen Shui-bian, the former president of Taiwan, was detained by the police in Taipei late Tuesday after prosecutors sought his formal arrest on corruption and money-laundering charges, according to Taipei television.
Chen, who served as president from 2000 until earlier this year and headed the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, was led to court in handcuffs Tuesday afternoon. He paused briefly before cameras, raised his arms up over his head and shouted: "Long Live Taiwanese independence!" and "This is political oppression!"
The detention was part of a widening corruption investigation that has already ensnared several of Chen's senior aides, as well as his wife, son, daughter and brother-in-law, each of whom has been named a defendant in the case. Chen's wife, Wu Shu-chen, is now on trial in Taipei for money laundering.
Chen, 57, has denied any wrongdoing in the case.
He has accused his successor, President Ma Ying-jeou, and the governing Kuomintang Party of politically motivated attacks on him and his family and has suggested that his strong independence stance for Taiwan, which has been separated from the Chinese mainland since a civil war ended in 1949, is behind the investigation.
Ma succeeded Chen in May and has pushed for warmer relations between Taiwan and mainland China. Last week, officials from Beijing even met in Taiwan with Ma and other senior officials, the highest-level exchange in 59 years, though they came amid strong protests.
China continues to regard Taiwan as a renegade province and has not ruled out the use of force to prevent it from moving to formal independence.
Chen served eight years as a populist leader known for his tough, anti-China rhetoric, but grew increasingly unpopular after his wife was charged with corruption in 2006 and his son-in-law was arrested on insider-trading charges.
Late Tuesday, a Taipei judge was presiding over a hearing with Chen, and some political analysts expected that the former president would be formally charged.
Prosecutors are looking into whether Chen embezzled money while serving as president, and whether his family members and aides were involved in laundering millions of dollars worth of campaign funds.
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