A Taiwanese court today sentenced former president Chen Shui-bian to life in prison after finding him guilty of corruption.
The high-profile, politically charged case also involved Chen's wife, who was sentenced to life for corruption, and numerous relatives and aides.
"Chen Shui-bian and Wu Shu-chen were sentenced to life in prison because Chen has done grave damage to the country, and Wu, because she was involved in corruption deals as the first lady," said a court spokesman, Huang Chun-ming. He said the couple had also been fined a total of NT$500m (£9m).
Chen, the former Democratic Progressive party leader, was the first non-Nationalist to lead the self-ruled island since Chiang Kai-shek fled there at the end of the civil war in 1949.
Prosecutors had charged Chen with embezzling £1.9m from a special presidential office fund, accepting bribes of about £5.4m in connection with a land deal, laundering money through Swiss bank accounts, and forging documents.
The 58-year-old pleaded not guilty – at one point going on hunger strike – and claimed he was being persecuted for his anti-Beijing views by his successor, Ma Ying-jeou, who has thawed relations with China.
Hundreds of Chen supporters demonstrated outside the court in Taipei holding flags and banners saying "Free him" and "Chen's innocent".
Chen, who has been held in a suburban Taipei jail since late December, chose not to attend today's proceedings. He won power in 2000, having campaigned on a pledge to clean up Nationalist corruption and deepen Taiwan's de facto independence. But the Nationalist majority in the legislature, and his alleged tendency to play fast and loose with accepted procedures, quickly caused him problems.
Chen angered Beijing with pro-independence views and also alienated Taiwan's most important ally, the US, which feared that his stance was increasing the risks of a war and damaging US-China relations.
An appeal is automatic and experts say it is too early to tell how long he will serve even if his conviction is upheld.
Most Taiwanese believe the former president is guilty of at least some of the charges against him, but supporters fear the decision to prosecute him was politically influenced.
Critics also say that Chen was unfairly confined to jail during his trial. The three-judge panel originally trying him agreed he did not need to be held, but it was replaced by a new panel which accepted prosecutors' arguments that he might flee or collude with co-conspirators.
President Ma Ying-jeou and justice ministry officials have said Chen's prosecution upholds the democratic principle that no one stands above the law in Taiwan.
"I think basically most people still have confidence that the trial itself was relatively fair and feel that something had to be done to deal with corruption," said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies.
"People had very high expectations of [Chen] dealing with corruption by the former government. Unfortunately, he himself was deeply involved."